Quality versus impact : Comparing the environmental efficiency of building properties using the EcoEffect tool

• There are tools that are developed for the assessment of the environmental impact of buildings (e.g. ATHENA). Other tools dealing with the indoor and outdoor environmental quality of building properties (referred to as real estates in other literature) are also available (e.g. GBTool). A platform where both the aspects of quality and impact are presented in an integrated fashion are few. The aim of this contribution is to present how the performance of different building properties can be assessed and compared using the concept of environmental efficiency in a Swedish assessment tool called EcoEffect. It presents the quality dimension in the form of users' satisfaction covering indoor and outdoor performance features against the weighted environmental impact covering global and local impacts. The indoor and outdoor values are collected using questionnaires combined with inspection and some measurements. Life cycle methodology is behind the calculation of the weighted external environmental impact. A case study is presented to show the application of EcoEffect using a comparative assessment of Lindas and a Reference property. The results show that Lindas block is better in internal environment quality than the Reference property. It performs slightly worse than the Reference property in the external environmental impact due to emissions and waste from energy and material use. The approach of integrated presentation of quality and impact as in EcoEffect provides with the opportunity of uncovering issues problem shifting and sub-optimisation. This avoids undesirable situations where the indoor quality is improved through measures that result in higher external environmental impact.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Miljöanalys och bygginformationsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Environmental Analysis and Construction Information Technology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Environmental efficiency

Environmental impacts

LCA

EcoEffect

Indoor

environment

Outdoor environment

performance

Civil engineering and architecture

Samhällsbyggnadsteknik och arkitektur

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)