Life Cycle Environmental Costs of Buildings

Yuanfeng Wang,Bo Pang,Xiangjie Zhang,Chengcheng Shi,Jingjing Wang,Shuowen Zhou,Yinshan Liu

doi:10.3390/en13061353

Abstract

Energy consumption and pollutant emissions from buildings have caused serious impacts on the environment. Currently, research on building environmental costs is quite insufficient. Based on life cycle inventory of building materials, fossil fuel and electricity power, a calculating model for environmental costs during different stages is presented. A single-objective optimization model is generated by converting environmental impact into environmental cost, with the same unit with direct cost. Two residential buildings, one located in Beijing and another in Xiamen, China, are taken as the case studies and analyzed to test the proposed model. Moreover, data uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of key parameters, including the discount rate and the unit virtual abatement costs of pollutants, are also conducted. The analysis results show that the environmental cost accounts for about 16% of direct cost. The environmental degradation cost accounts for about 70% of the total environmental cost. According to the probabilistic uncertainty analysis results, the coefficient of variation of material production stage is the largest. The sensitivity analysis results indicate that the unit virtual abatement cost of CO2 has the largest influence on the final environmental cost.

Highlights

With the rapid development of economy, China overtook the US as the world’s biggest energy consumer and greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter
[5]divided and the into characteristics of construction engineering, environmental of buildings are characteristics of construction engineering, the environmental costs of buildings are divided into three parts: (1) green construction measures cost, which refers to the practical costs of protecting the three parts: (1) green construction measures cost, which refers to the practical costs of protecting the environment during construction stage; (2) virtual abatement costs, which are used to control the environment during construction stage; (2) virtual abatement costs, which are used to control the emissions of pollutants in the lifelife cycle includingwater water pollutants, pollutants emissions of pollutants in the cycleofofbuildings, buildings, including pollutants, air air pollutants and and solid solid waste pollutants, andand where
To compare the environmental cost of residential buildings during the operational stage, two sites were selected as case study buildings

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of economy, China overtook the US as the world’s biggest energy consumer and greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. About 1.6–2.0 billion m2 of buildings are constructed every year in China [1], accounting for about 40% of the world’s total new buildings [2]. A large amount of GHG will be emitted during the life cycle of buildings, especially in construction and operation stages. In order to achieve the sustainable development of construction, there is a great need to clearly know both the costs and the environment costs of buildings. There is no common understanding of the concept of environmental cost in the academic circle, and there are still some differences among different research fields.

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Conclusion