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- Nydahl, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Building Refurbishment from a Life Cycle Perspective - An Environmental Return on Investment Approach
- 2018
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Ingår i: Cold Climate HVAC 2018. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030006617 - 9783030006624 ; , s. 253-263
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study applies an environmental return on investment approach to evaluate building refurbishment from a life cycle perspective. The used methodology focuses on the changes introduced by refurbishment, i.e. added embodied environmental impact and changed operational environmental impact, from a life cycle perspective with the technical service life of the refurbishment measure as a time limit. The methodology is applied to a case study in Umeå, located 455 km south of the Arctic Circle, with a unique set of data on reduction in operational energy. The result show the environmental impact, energy (Joule) and GWP (CO2-eq), in terms of environmental return on investment of the case study refurbishment measures. The case study shows that the methodology is a useable approach to compare refurbishment measures from a life cycle perspective. It is possible to use the methodology as a tool at an early stage in planning of sustainable building refurbishment from a life cycle perspective. For a widespread use of a tool based on an environmental return on investment approach, further research on guidelines for sustainable environmental return on investment values is required.
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- Nydahl, Helena, 1990-
(författare)
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Communication of life cycle assessment results : life cycle key performance indicators
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The global warming that we are on track for will result in a severe loss of natural capital leading to significant losses in economic capital when urban infrastructure is destroyed, agricultural productivity declines and poverty spread among other disasters. Climate change due to emissions does not only affect the polluter, the hazardous effects becomes evident on a global level. An essential tool to enable decision‑making with concern to the welfare of the global commons is life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA compile and evaluate the inputs, outputs, and potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The reviewed literature frames a gap regarding interpretation of LCA-results and inquire for guidelines that address a wide range of stakeholders to enable informed decision-making with regard to the welfare of the global commons. Some studies even argue that an apparent weakness of LCA-result communication is the understanding of what the results mean for the economic key performance indicators (KPIs) of the stakeholder. Thus, this thesis aims to contribute to the development of guidelines for interpretation of LCA-results by introducing an approach for communicating LCA-results that is compatible with the economically driven nature of stakeholders. The specific research questions (RQ) of this thesis are: (RQ1) How can well-established economic KPIs be utilised to quantify environmental impact? and (RQ2) How does incorporation of monetary valuation of environmental impacts and related environmental aspects affect the LCA-result and communication of results?These research questions have led to life cycle key performance indicators (LC‑KPIs) that quantify life cycle economic and environmental impacts in a way that take after the traditional economic KPIs of the stakeholders, which is outlined as essential to improve the understanding of LCA-results. The LC‑KPIs utilize the traditional economic KPIs of return on investment (ROI) and annual yield (AY). Additionally, to manage the large amount of non-commensurate units of holistic life cycle sustainability assessment, monetary valuation has been applied. Hence, contributing to the research area of monetary valuation in LCA by introducing and testing new approaches.The introduced LC-KPIs have been specified for building LCA and exemplified by applying them to a number of Swedish case buildings. The result show that the climate-economic assessment of building refurbishment differs compared to the traditional economic assessment when monetary valuation is utilized in LCA with the LC-KPI of ROIEconomy+. However, in the comparative assessment of building refurbishment and new construction, the LCA‑result does not change compared to the traditional economic assessment when monetary valuation is utilized in LCA with the LC-KPI of ELCCA. This is explained by the high costs associated with the investment and energy use of buildings and may not be the case if products with lower investment and energy use costs and high life cycle greenhouse-gas emissions would be studied. Still, if a purely environmental assessment of a product is wished for, the LC-KPI should only include monetary valuation of environmental impact factors and exclude traditional economic performance. Thus, the case study result defines further scope for research on the subject of monetary valuation in LCA and inquire for a wider spectrum of LC-KPIs that utilizes monetary valuation.The introduced approach of this thesis contribute to the development of guidelines for interpretation of LCA-results. Nevertheless, there are still challenges that needs to be addressed in the development of robust LCA-result interpretation. Still, the LC‑KPIs used in this thesis address the “cognitive logics” of a wide range of stakeholders and provide an approach for communication of LCA-results which improve the understanding of LCA-results.
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| 4. |
- Nydahl, Helena, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Performance Measures to Assess Building Refurbishment from a Life Cycle Perspective
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 12:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Energy efficiency investments in existing buildings are an effective way of reducing the environmental impact of the building stock. Even though policies in the European Union and elsewhere promote a unilateral focus on operational energy reduction, scientific studies highlight the importance of applying a life cycle perspective to energy refurbishment. However, life cycle assessment is often perceived as being complicated and the results difficult to interpret by the construction sector. There is also a lack of guidelines regarding the sustainable ratio between the embodied and accumulated operational impact. The scope of this study is to introduce a life cycle assessment method for building refurbishment that utilizes familiar economic performance tools, namely return on investment and annual yield. The aim is to use the introduced method to analyze a case building with a sustainability profile. The building was refurbished in order to reduce its operational energy use. The introduced method is compatible with a theory of minimum sustainable environmental performance that may be developed through backcasting from defined energy and GHG emissions objectives. The proposed approach will hopefully allow development of sustainable refurbishment objectives that can support the choice of refurbishment investments.
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| 5. |
- Nydahl, Helena, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Extended building life cycle cost assessment with the inclusion of monetary evaluation of climate risk and opportunities
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainable cities and society. - : Elsevier. - 2210-6707. ; 76
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The buildings and construction sector account for a significant part of the total energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions. However, climate change mitigation often becomes secondary or completely disregarded in building design assessment as the primary concern of building owners are economic tenability. Therefore, this study introduces an Extended Life Cycle Cost Assessment that include monetary evaluation of climate risk and opportunities in terms of Social Cost of Carbon (SCC). SCC could function as a tax to promote climate change mitigation within e.g. the construction industry. The purpose is to provide a more holistic assessment approach that is easy to relate to if economic tenability is of primary concern in decision making, which can be used to assess building design. Return on invested greenhouse gas emissions is used as an additional or standalone indicator for climate change mitigation. The introduced approach is exemplified by a case study where renovation and new construction are compared with keeping buildings in its original design. The case study show that with or without a flat greenhouse gas tax, renovation is the most climate and cost efficient alternative.
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| 6. |
- Nydahl, Helena, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Including future climate induced cost when assessing building refurbishment performance
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier. - 0378-7788 .- 1872-6178. ; 203
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Improving energy efficiency in the existing buildings stock is essential to limit climate change and the economic assessment of measures are traditionally only based on the reduction of energy costs: However, future financial benefits of limiting climate change are rarely included in the evaluation of refurbishment investments. Although, the costs associated with global warming are expected to be extensive. This study introduces a method for the financial evaluation of energy efficiency investments that merge the reduction of life cycle energy costs with the reduction of future climate induced costs. A case study is used to exemplify the method. The case study shows that when reduced future costs due to mitigated life cycle greenhouse gas emissions are included in the analysis, the ranking between different measures can change and traditionally non-profitable measures may become financially sound investments. The introduced Economy+ indicator is shown to be an accessible performance measure to assess building refurbishment and may also be used in the design stage of new construction. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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| 7. |
- Sanner, Margareta A., et al.
(författare)
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Obstacles to organ donation in Swedish intensive care units
- 2006
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Ingår i: Intensive Care Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0342-4642 .- 1432-1238. ; 32:5, s. 700-7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective To identify obstacles to organ donation in Swedish intensive care units.Design A survey exploring attitudes and experiences of organ donation activities was sent to half of all anaesthetists and all neurosurgeons in Sweden (n = 644). Total response rate was 67%; 69% from the anaesthetists and 54% from the neurosurgeons.Results Neurosurgeons had more experiences of caring for potential donors and requesting donation than anaesthetists. Twenty-seven percent of the anaesthetists were not confident with clinical neurological criteria for brain incarceration. Nine per cent found donation activities solely burdensome, and 14% wanted an external team to take over the donation request. A quarter regarded the request definitely as an extra load on the family, and more than half of the respondents had refrained from asking in emotionally strained situations. Forty-nine per cent had a neutral approach to relatives when requesting donation while 38% had a pro-donation approach. Thirty-six per cent terminated ventilator treatment for a potential donor without waiting for total brain infarction. Lack of resources in the ICUs resulted in not identifying a possible donor according to 29% of respondents. Knowing the prior wish of the deceased was regarded as the single most important factor that facilitated the work with organ donation for the intensivists.Conclusions The identified obstacles (neutral approach of donation request, ethical problems concerning the potential donor and the relatives, varying competence in diagnosing total brain infarction, and lack of intensive care bed resources) require tailored efforts in order to increase organ donation. Checking these factors can be used as a quality control when analysing donation activities at hospitals.
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| 8. |
- Sanner, Margareta, et al.
(författare)
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Hindren för organdonation i intensivvården kan överbryggas [Obstacles for recruiting organ donors in intensive care units can be overcomed] : Identifierade hinder är attityder, etik, resurser och kompetens, visar enkät [Identified obstacles are attitudes, ethics, resources and competence, as shown by an inquiry]
- 2005
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Ingår i: Läkartidningen. - 0023-7205 .- 1652-7518. ; 102:45, s. 3300-5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brist på organ för transplantation gör att alla potentiella donatorer måste uppmärksammas. Genom en enkät till anestesiologer och neurokirurger har hinder för organdonation i intensivvården kartlagts. Dessa hinder utgörs av läkarnas förhållningssätt vid förfrågan om organdonation (neutralt i stället för pro-donationsinriktat), etisk problematik avseende både patienten och dennas närstående, resursbrist på främst regionsjukhusen samt varierande kompetens vad gäller klinisk diagnostik av total hjärninfarkt. Vart och ett av dessa hinder måste överbryggas för att bristen på organ skall kunna minska. Förslag på åtgärder skisseras. Resultaten kan användas som analysverktyg i den lokala verksamheten och på nationell nivå.
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