Life Cycle Energy and Environmental Assessment of the Thermal Insulation Improvement in Residential Buildings

Maria Anna Cusenza,Teresa Maria Gulotta,Maurizio Cellura,Marina Mistretta

doi:10.3390/en14123452

Maria Anna Cusenza, Teresa Maria Gulotta + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123452

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Jun 10, 2021
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Palermo, University of Reggio Calabria

Abstract

The refurbishment of the building stock is a key strategy towards the achievement of the climate and energy goals of the European Union. This study aims at evaluating the energy and environmental impacts associated with retrofitting a residential apartment to improve its vertical envelope thermal insulation. Two insulation materials, stone wool and cellulose fibers, are compared. The life cycle assessment methodology is applied assuming 1 m2 of retrofitted vertical envelope as functional unit. Moreover, to estimate the net energy and environmental benefits achievable in the retrofitted scenario compared with the non-retrofitted one, a second analysis is performed in which the system boundaries are expanded to include the building operational phase, and 1 m2 of walkable floor per year is assumed as reference. The results show that the use of cellulose fibers involve lower impacts in most of the assessed categories compared to stone wool, except for abiotic resource depletion. In detail, the use of cellulose fibers allows to reduce the impact on climate change up to 20% and the consumption of primary energy up to 10%. The evaluation of the net energy and environmental benefits shows the effectiveness of the retrofit energy policies.

Highlights

The building sector accounts for about 40% of energy consumption and 36% of the CO2 emissions of the European Union (EU [1]), it is responsible for over 50% of the use of extracted materials [2] and for 38% of the waste generated [3]
The comparison of the energy and environmental impacts associated with the SwS and CfS highlights that the CfS performs better than the SwS in almost all the categories examined
The exceptions are renewable embodied energy (EER ), land use related impacts/soil quality (LU), water use (WU), depletion of abiotic resources—material and metals (ADPm&m ), climate change—biogenic (GWPb ) and climate change—land use and land use change (GWPLULUC ), in which the percentage variation of the contribution related to the CfS ranges from a minimum value equal to about 4% for WU to a maximum value of about 154% for ADPm&m

Summary

Introduction

The building sector accounts for about 40% of energy consumption and 36% of the CO2 emissions of the European Union (EU [1]), it is responsible for over 50% of the use of extracted materials [2] and for 38% of the waste generated [3]. Improving the environmental performances of the building sector is crucial for achieving the European targets in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy efficiency [4], and for the transition towards a true circular development. As underlined by the European Commission in the European Green Deal action plan, the application of the energy performance legislation in the building sector is of paramount importance to achieve the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals [5] through the widespread diffusion of positive energy districts and zero energy communities [6,7], the application of circular economy strategies at the urban level [8], the use of climateresilient, low-impact construction techniques.

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