Optimization of rural green building design in Northwestern Hunan based on LCA and AHP

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts associated with green buildings through the lens of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Green buildings, designed to minimize ecological footprints, have gained significant traction as a sustainable solution to the environmental challenges posed by traditional construction practices. The research explores the full life cycle of green buildings—from the extraction of raw materials and construction processes to the operational phase and eventual demolition. By applying LCA methodologies, the study assesses various environmental indicators, including energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and waste generation. The findings indicate that while green buildings offer substantial reductions in operational energy use and carbon emissions, the environmental benefits can be offset by the impacts during the construction phase, particularly in material production and transportation. Additionally, the study highlights the critical role of sustainable material selection and advanced construction techniques in achieving the intended environmental benefits. The research also underscores the importance of considering the entire life cycle of a building, rather than focusing solely on the operational phase, to accurately evaluate its environmental performance. The analysis contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable construction by providing actionable insights for architects, builders, policymakers, and stakeholders in the building industry. These insights can guide the development of more effective strategies for reducing the environmental impacts of buildings across their entire life cycle. Furthermore, the study identifies areas for future research, including the integration of renewable energy systems, the impact of building design on resource efficiency, and the role of circular economy principles in construction. Ultimately, this research advocates for a holistic approach to green building design, one that fully accounts for environmental impacts throughout the building’s life span, ensuring that the pursuit of sustainability in the built environment is both effective and truly comprehensive. Keywords: Life Cycle, Green Buildings, Environmental Impacts, Analysis, Assessment.

Life cycle assessment shows that retrofitting coal-fired power plants with fuel cells will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The energy consumption and emission of polyurethane pavement construction based on life cycle assessment

Cities in India contribute significantly to the economic growth adding more than 60% to GDP which is expected to increase to 75% by the year 2030. Green commercial buildings have been an emerging trend in cities over the conventional building for more than a decade now since LEED rating systems came to India in the year 2001 in partnership with CII-IGBC. Cities have resource challenges with the commercial energy shortage, water demand-supply imbalance, significant increase in solid wastes that a building generates and hyperinflation in the price of building materials because of resource-supply challenges. Green buildings globally are considered resource efficient and environment-friendly. The green rating systems in India and all around the world claim resource and environment efficiency of green rated buildings but more evidence-based research is needed.This paper attempts to explore if incremental costs of building green do result in tangible benefits during the life cycle of green building. This paper uses qualitative approach using secondary data analysis and exploratory interviews with green consultants, architects and developers to access if building green has tangible benefits or not.The paper also finds out that green buildings though comes out as resource efficient over a conventional building but tangible benefits need further evidence-based research in terms of rental premiums, occupancy rates and energy efficiency savings.

A dynamic life cycle carbon emission assessment on green and non-green buildings in China

Construction and using of buildings for many years produce long-lasting impacts on human health and the environment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the rapidly evolving science of clarifying these impacts in terms of their quality, severity, and duration. LCA of three selected new family houses located in Eastern Slovakia is performed with the aim to compare them in terms of built-in materials as well as used technologies. The main goal of the analysis is to investigate and underline the foreseeable reduction rate of environmental impacts resulting from applied green materials and green technologies. LCA impact categories of global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential (ODP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) are selected for this analysis. Investigated family houses are built from conventional materials, such as aerated concrete blocks, reinforced concrete, thermal insulation of silicate mineral slabs, and roofing mineral wool, as well as natural materials, such as clay, straw, wood, cellulose, and vegetation roofs. Product phase contributes greatly to the GWP for houses built of conventional materials. AP, EP, ODP, and POCP impact categories are considerable also in the product phase. Even an operational energy phase contributes a large share of the negative impact on the environment. Adoption of green design and technology in buildings, which can mitigate negative impacts on the environment, has been recognized as a key step towards global sustainable development. The main goal of this article is to make the case that green buildings are important for reducing negative effects on the environment and resources, while simultaneously enhancing positive effects throughout the building life cycle.

Cradle-to-gate embodied carbon assessment of green office building using life cycle analysis: A case study from Sri Lanka

Taking the integration of modern information technology and green building as the research background, we study the current status of BIM technology and green building development and application in the existing green building evaluation standard system, analyze the obstacles existing in the practical application of BIM technology in the whole life cycle of green building under the new global evaluation standard, and point out the direction of further research. The results of the study show that at this stage, BIM technology and green building-related regulations and systems are not yet sound, the evaluation standard system is not yet perfect, and there is a lack of organic synergy between each other,"Siloing" at certain points throughout the life cycle of a building. Green buildings are far away from the development and application of BIM technology and green buildings. The phenomenon of "isolated" in some stages of the whole life cycle of the building, some links appear as an "island" phenomenon, there is still a gap between green building and comprehensive coverage, and the widespread application of BIM technology needs to be promoted. In the future, the application research on sustainable development of green buildings based on BIM should be committed to further improve the relevant regulations, systems, and evaluation standards, create a core database of all relevant information in each stage of the whole life cycle of the building, realize the interactive sharing of information, implement the BIM integrated application mode, give full play to the advantages of the whole life cycle and integrated management of BIM, and integrate BIM technology with green building in a deeper way.

Environmental assessment over the course of the full life cycle of a building (LCA - Life Cycle Assessment) covers the environmental burden connected with energy consumption and the accompanying emission of contaminants into the atmosphere from the moment of obtaining a raw material and all stages of its processing and treatment, through the service life of a building, up to the moment that the use value of the building expires and the storage of waste. Literature on the subject is already very rich in this scope. There are numerous works pertaining to the guidelines for calculating all costs of the life cycle of buildings, i.e. environmental, economic and social costs. In these works, however, not much is said about the means of determining the life cycle of building structures. This is very important, especially in the case of the analysing the cycle of the further existence of buildings no longer in use, as well as newly designed ones. The article presents a method of predicting the performance characteristics of a building over the course of its use. The application of this method has been illustrated by the prediction of the performance characteristics of masonry walls, verified by studies carried out on existing buildings. The method - the purpose of research, can be applied to determine the life cycle (LC) of buildings for which LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis) is carried out. A significant problem pertaining to every object in use is ensuring adequate reliability. The process of modeling reliability should have a mathematical basis enabling the problem to be described in detail. The ultimate aim is applying this description when solving problems connected with planning renovation work.

Construction industry has a great contribution to energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the world. In this paper, CO2 emissions of construction industry are calculated based on the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) from 2004 to 2010. According to life cycle theory, building life cycle is divided into four parts, namely building materials production, construction, operation and maintenance, and demolition waste. For the convenience of statistical analysis, the constructing, building maintenance, and demolition waste were merged into one part named the new construction. The results present the macrobuilding CO2 emissions were 3.7 billion tons, accounting for 44.7 % of the China’s CO2 emissions in 2010. Among the macrobuilding CO2 emissions, the averaged annual percentage of materials production, new construction, and operation phase were 40, 3, and 57 %, respectively.

Efficient use and consumption of natural resources is an important strategy in sustainable development. This chapter discusses available methods and indicators to assess “resource efficiency” beyond the assessment of the quantities of materials used and toward available indicators in life cycle assessment (LCA). According to the classical definition in LCA, natural resources encompass input-oriented environmental interventions (e.g., extraction of abiotic resources, such as oil, ore deposits, fossil, and fresh surface water, as well as biotic resources such as fish and trees). LCA and existing life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods are seen as a good basis for measuring resource efficiency. Despite several models to assess resource use and depletion within LCA, important challenges remain. Available models do not fully evaluate resource use and availability in the context of their functional relevance for human purposes. For the efficient use of resources, all dimensions of sustainability need to be addressed. Environmental, economic, and social implications of material use and availability have to also be considered. Assessment of resource utilization and efficiency associated with product systems needs to shift toward life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA).

Conventional versus modular construction methods: A comparative cradle-to-gate LCA for residential buildings

The Importance of Integrating LCA into the LEED Rating System

PurposeSustainable building design relies heavily on building parts, with crucial consideration for climate and environmental impact. Due to numerous criteria and diverse alternatives, employing multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) to choose the best alternative is essential. Yet, relevant criteria and suitable MCDM methods for life cycle-based building planning still need to be determined. This study highlights prevalent environmental criteria and offers guidance on MCDM approaches for sustainable building parts.MethodsThis study introduces an innovative approach by integrating life cycle assessment and MCDM. This provides comprehensive decision support for planners. A systematic literature review identifies environmental criteria for building parts and is validated in expert workshops. Thus, the relevance of criteria across the building life cycle is established. Furthermore, the study analyzes MCDM approaches in the built environment. From this, the study employs and evaluates the Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a case study. Thereby, it offers insights into effective decision-making methodologies for sustainable building practices.ResultsThis research categorizes environmental criteria for building parts and buildings into emissions, energy, resources, and circularity. Among 26 building part-related criteria, the global warming potential is highlighted. While the AHP is widely used in MCDM, a standardized method in planning processes is yet to emerge. Applying the ANP and AHP reveals similar rankings for the best and worst alternatives in a case study focused on selecting the optimal ceiling structure. Ribbed or box slab ceiling constructions are favored over reinforced concrete and composite timber-concrete constructions.ConclusionsThis study presents a novel method for life cycle-based MCDM challenges, identifying key environmental criteria. While material correlations exist, evaluating building parts demands simultaneous consideration of multiple criteria. Future research aims to compare further MCDM methods regarding their applicability, transparency, and ranking to enhance decision-making in sustainable construction. These investigations are essential for refining decision-making processes in the built environment, ensuring effective and transparent sustainability planning approaches.

A statistical analysis of life cycle assessment for buildings and buildings’ refurbishment research