Use of EPD System for Designing New Building Materials: The Case Study of a Bio-Based Thermal Insulation Panel from the Pineapple Industry By-Product

Diego Armando Arellano-Vazquez,Miguel Mayorga Rojas,Gustavo Islas Valverde,Luca Moreschi,Lorena Romero-Salazar,Michela Gallo,Juan Carlos Arteaga-Arcos,Adriana Del Borghi

doi:10.3390/su12176864

Diego Armando Arellano-Vazquez, Miguel Mayorga Rojas + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176864

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Abstract

This study shows the benefits of using the environmental product declarations (EPDs), based on ISO 14025:2013, for the configuration and conceptualization of new building materials. Using a quantitative evaluation on these phases of design, it allows one to create materials with lower impacts, in comparison with the existing ones. In this paper, it is proposed to evaluate the potentiality of this tool in the development of a panel from pineapple by-products from agroindustry, used as a thermal insulator. The issue of environmental sustainability was pursued, employing the assessment of the environmental impacts according to characterization methods defined by the International EPD® System. By comparing the possible compositions of the materials under development, with certified environmental declarations of commercial materials, it is possible to identify and select optimal compositions decreasing up to 98.28% of impacts in acidification potential or up to 99.38% for photochemical oxidation—with respect to traditional materials—already at the design stage, where the changes on the composition or the facilities decision have fewer complications.

Highlights

Design is a word widely used in different areas of knowledge to refer to the shape of an object or a drawing [1]
This paper shows the advantage of using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and life cycle inventory (LCI) in a new way, to design low impact materials, through the conceptualization, based on the environmental product declaration and the comparison between commercial materials
The comparative analysis between the two listed configurations of biobased materials shows that the first composition had a considerable decrease in the environmental impacts, assessed by the environmental product declarations (EPDs) (Table 12 and Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

Design is a word widely used in different areas of knowledge to refer to the shape of an object or a drawing [1]. The design is transversal to all areas of knowledge, and the study of its methods solves problems such as the distance between the theory and the object, like the uncertainty in how to declare the environmental impacts [3,4]. In the building industry activities, one of the biggest contributors to climate change, decision-makers have begun to transform their actions into others with less impacts. These changes could be visible on building codes, energy certifications such as LEED or BREEAM, or international agreements, such as the Paris agreement or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [5,6]. The environmental problems related to designing buildings come from the lack of information and designing methodologies that do not consider quantitative assessments since the early stages of the material’s design [6]

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