Life Cycle Assessment of a Three-Storey Terrace of Three Timber-Framed Residential Workplace Units

Abstract

There is an urgent need to evaluate the environmental impacts of both traditional and more recent innovations in sustainable building materials. This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a single three-storey (aboveground) terrace in Ireland composed of three timber-framed residential workplace units. The supply of raw materials, their transport to the manufacturing site, and the manufacturing processes for the materials used in the building account for 58% of the GWP during the production stage. The horizontal elements of the An Corrán building and roof account for the largest contribution (29.3%) to the GWP environmental impact. The LCA results show that the building’s 469 m2 gross internal floor area (GIFA) produced life cycle carbon emissions of 220 t CO2e and has an embodied carbon value of 398 kg CO2e m−2 and 6.63 kg CO2e m−2 a−1 for the building’s 60-year estimated cradle-to-grave life cycle. When compared to conventional (i.e., masonry) and timber-framed buildings in Europe, the An Corrán building shows that substantial GWP savings occurred during the Use Stage with a GWP footprint of 50.5 kg CO2e m2 compared to 375.65 and 386.6 kg CO2e m2 for previously reported masonry and timber-framed houses, respectively.