| 1. |
- di Bari, R., et al.
(författare)
-
Buildings LCA and digitalization: Designers' toolbox based on a survey
- 2022
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 1078:1
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a context of digitalization and increasing quality requirements, the building sector is facing an increasing level of complexity regarding its design process. This results in a growing number of involved actors from different domains, a multitude of tasks to be completed and a higher degree of needed expertise. New buildings are also required to reach higher performances in terms of environmental quality. To that regard, the exploitation of the full potential of digital tools can facilitate the integration of environmental aspects in the planning process, limit productivity shortcomings and reduce environmental impacts, which can result from an unaware decision making. Building environmental assessment can be performed through several Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based tools. “Pure calculation” tools quantify final buildings' environmental potential, while “complex tools” additionally support decision making during the planning process. It is often difficult to choose the best suitable tool, which strongly depends on the user's needs. Within the IEA EBC Annex 72, a survey was realized with the main objective of creating a comprehensive overview of the existing tools dedicated to buildings LCA. The questionnaire included the usability, functionality, compliance, data reliability and interoperability of the analysed tools. Lastly, based on the survey outcomes and their critical assessment, a procedure for the identification and selection of a tool has been proposed based on user's needs. As a result, this work outlines main features of currently available building LCA tools, for which there is a harmonized status in terms of usability and overall applied LCA methodology. Despite the need for more automatized workflows, tools' embedding is mostly not yet applicable in system chains or limited to a restricted number of tools.
|
|
| 2. |
- Habert, Guillaume, et al.
(författare)
-
Carbon budgets for buildings: harmonising temporal, spatial and sectoral dimensions
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Buildings and Cities. - : Ubiquity Press, Ltd.. - 2632-6655. ; 1:1, s. 429-452
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Target values for creating carbon budgets for buildings are important for developing climate-neutral building stocks. A lack of clarity currently exists for defining carbon budgets for buildings and what constitutes a unit of assessment—particularly the distinction between production-and consumption-based accounting. These different perspectives on the system and the function that is assessed hinder a clear and commonly agreed definition of ‘carbon budgets’ for building construction and operation. This paper explores the processes for establishing a carbon budget for residential and non-residential buildings. A detailed review of current approaches to budget allocation is presented. The temporal and spatial scales of evaluation are considered as well as the distribution rules for sharing the budget between parties or activities. This analysis highlights the crucial need to define the temporal scale, the roles of buildings as physical artefacts and their economic activities. A framework is proposed to accommodate these different perspectives and spatio-temporal scales towards harmonised and comparable cross-sectoral budget definitions. Policy relevance The potential to develop, implement and monitor greenhouse gas-related policies and strategies for buildings will depend on the provision of clear targets. Based on global limits, a carbon budget can establish system boundaries and scalable targets. An operational framework is presented that clarifies greenhouse gas targets for buildings in the different parts of the world that is adaptable to the context and circumstances of a particular place. A carbon budget can enable national regulators to set feasible and legally binding requirements. This will assist the many different stakeholders responsible for decisions on buildings to coordinate and incorporate their specific responsibility at one specific level or scale of activity to ensure overall compliance. Therefore, determining a task specific carbon budget requires an appropriate management of the global carbon budget to ensure that specific budgets overlap, but that the sum of them is equal to the available global budget without double-counting.
|
|
| 3. |
- Harrison, Josie, 1989, et al.
(författare)
-
Scalability in Building Component Data Annotation: Enhancing Facade Material Classification with Synthetic Data
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the European Conference on Computing in Construction. - 2684-1150.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Computer vision models trained on Google Street View images can create material cadastres. However, current approaches need manually annotated datasets that are difficult to obtain and often have class imbalance. To address these challenges, this paper fine-tuned a Swin Transformer model on a synthetic dataset generated with OpenAI’s DALL E and compared the performance to a similar manually annotated dataset. Although manual annotation remains the gold standard, the synthetic dataset performance demonstrates a reasonable alternative. The findings will ease annotation needed to develop material cadastres, offering architects insights into opportunities for material reuse, thus contributing to the reduction of demolition waste.
|
|
| 4. |
- Hlal, Fatima, 1989, et al.
(författare)
-
Life Cycle Cost and Life Cycle Assessment of Composite Bridge with Flat and Corrugated Webs
- 2023
-
Ingår i: ce/papers. ; 6, s. 574-579
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To satisfy the sustainability criteria, a bridge design must be economically viable during its entire service life with a minimal impact on the environment. While stainless steel is known for its excellent life cycle performance, its high cost prevents it from being used in bridges to a larger extent. This study evaluates a new design solution that takes advantage of using corrugated web in bridge girders to overcome this issue. Three design concepts are evaluated for a three-span case-study bridge. These include a bridge with carbon steel flat web, stainless steel flat web, and stainless-steel corrugated web girders. Each design is optimized using a genetic algorithm. The three optimal solutions are then evaluated in terms of investment costs, life cycle costs (LCC) and life cycle impact. The results show that the investment costs in a flat web girder bridge increase by 27% when stainless steel is used instead of C-Mn (carbon) steel. However, this increase is only 10% when corrugated web girders are used. On the other hand, the LCC savings increase from 6% to 18% for corrugated web girders. Finally, the use of corrugated web in stainless steel leads to a reduction in the climate impacts of up to 32% compared to carbon steel for the studied bridge.
|
|
| 5. |
- Hollberg, Alexander, 1985, et al.
(författare)
-
Improving the collaboration between architects and energy consultants through design-integrated early BIM-tools
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Building Simulation Conference Proceedings. - : IBPSA. - 2522-2708. - 9781713809418 ; 4, s. 2627-2633
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a lack of optimization of buildings towards energy performance in early design stages in practice. Interviews with architects and energy consultants showed that one reason is the inefficient communication between these two groups. This paper investigates how a design-integrated early-BIM tool can improve the relation between architects and energy consultants to support an optimization process in early design stages and facilitate issuing energy performance certificates. Two case studies show that the early-BIM tool provides meaningful results for the architects involved and can reduce the input time for energy consultants by 50%. Furthermore, the simple 3D model functions as boundary object between the two groups and supports the collaboration.
|
|
| 6. |
- Somanath, Sanjay, 1994, et al.
(författare)
-
AI-baserad segementering av fasader för att optimera renovering i en större skala
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Bygg och teknik. - 0281-658X. ; 2021:2, s. 26-29
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Hur kan vi på ett automatiskt sätt skapa mer detaljerade 3D modeller av byggnader i digitala tvillingar och förbättra indata för att beräkna energibesparingspotentialer i befintliga byggnader? I en pilotstudie har vi undersökt hur maskininlärning kan användas för att extrahera information om fönstersättning och storlek i befintliga byggnader. Vi har utvecklat en modell som har “tränats” att känna igen och segmenterar fönster från bilder med byggnadsfasader och på så sätt skapa digitala och mer detaljerade data för befintliga byggnader. Vårt långsiktiga mål är att utveckla en helautomatisk metod för analyser av renoveringspotentialer för byggnader och fastighetsportföljer.
|
|
| 7. |
- Soust-Verdaguer, B., et al.
(författare)
-
Implications of using systematic decomposition structures to organize building LCA information: A comparative analysis of national standards and guidelines- IEA EBC ANNEX 72
- 2020
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 588:2
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique to a building requires the collection and organization of a large amount of data over its life cycle. The systematic decomposition method can be used to classify building components, elements and materials, overcome specific difficulties that are encountered when attempting to complete the life cycle inventory and increase the reliability and transparency of results. In this paper, which was developed in the context of the research project IEA EBC Annex 72, we demonstrate the implications of taking such approach and describe the results of a comparison among different national standards/guidelines that are used to conduct LCA for building decomposition. Methods: We initially identified the main characteristics of the standards/guidelines used by Annex participant countries. The “be2226” reference office building was used as a reference to apply the different national standards/guidelines related to building decomposition. It served as a basis of comparison, allowing us to identify the implications of using different systems/standards in the LCA practice, in terms of how these differences affect the LCI structures, LCA databases and the methods used to communicate results. We also analyzed the implications of integrating these standards/guidelines into Building Information Modelling (BIM) to support LCA. Results: Twelve national classification systems/ standards/guidelines for the building decomposition were compared. Differences were identified among the levels of decomposition and grouping principles, as well as the consequences of these differences that were related to the LCI organization. In addition, differences were observed among the LCA databases and the structures of the results. Conclusions: The findings of this study summarize and provide an overview of the most relevant aspects of using a standardized building decomposition structure to conduct LCA. Recommendations are formulated on the basis of these findings.
|
|
| 8. |
- Theißen, S., et al.
(författare)
-
Concept for combining LCA and hazardous building material assessment for decision support using BIM
- 2022
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 1078:1
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The construction and building sector is responsible for a large part of the world's resource and energy consumption and is considered the largest global emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hazardous and toxic substances in building materials affect indoor air quality as well as the environment and thus have a high impact on human health, as we spend around 90 percent of our lives in buildings. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and hazardous building material requirements of green building certification systems allow to reduce the environmental and health impacts of building products and materials. However, they are usually very complex and time-consuming to perform and require expert knowledge to use the results for decision support. Digital approaches to support the simplified application of these methods and intuitive visualization of results are becoming increasingly important. Especially Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers a high potential for this purpose, as the integration and linking of geometric and semantic information in 3D-models for LCA and hazardous building material assessment can be done much more efficiently and intuitively. Within the scope of this work, the following three objectives were pursued (1) development of a method for combining LCA and hazardous building material assessment, (2) simplification of the results by converting them into comprehensible indicators for decision support, and (3) implementation of the method in a BIM-based digital assistant for intuitive visualization and communication. The preliminary results show a concept for combined use of LCA and hazardous building material assessment in Germany with differentiation in six use cases. A prototypical implementation as BIM-integrated digital assistant was developed for one of these use cases. For the first time, this prototype provides understandable feedback in real time of LCA and hazardous building material requirements. This research project contributes to the awareness in the context of embodied impacts and low emitting materials in buildings and advances the current digitalization potentials.
|
|
| 9. |
- Abu-Ghaida, Haitham, et al.
(författare)
-
Accounting for product recovery potential in building life cycle assessments: a disassembly network-based approach
- 2024
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - 1614-7502 .- 0948-3349. ; In Press
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Existing life cycle assessment (LCA) methods for buildings often overlook the benefits of product recovery potential, whether for future reuse or repurposing. This oversight arises from the limited scope of such methods, which often ignore the complex interdependencies between building products. The present paper, backed by its supplementary Python library, introduces a method that addresses this gap, emphasizing the influence of product interdependencies and future recovery potential on environmental impact. Methods: Implementing the proposed method requires adding a phase, the recovery potential assessment, to the four phases that constitute an LCA according to the ISO 14040/14044 guidelines. Given the disassembly sequence for each product, in the first step of the recovery potential assessment, a disassembly network (DN) is created that displays structural and accessibility dependencies. By calculating the average of the disassembly potential (DP) of each structural dependency (second step) associated with that product, we obtain the DP (0.1–1) at the product level in a third step. Because there is no empirical data available to support a specific relationship between product disassembly potential and recovery potential (RP) (0–1), we employ, in a fourth step, a flexible model specification to represent scenarios of how this relationship may look like. Ultimately, for each scenario, the resulting RP is used to enable a probabilistic material flow analysis with a binary outcome, whether to be recovered or not. The resulting product-level median material flows are then used to quantify the building’s environmental impact for a given impact category in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). The results are interpreted through an uncertainty, hotspot, and sensitivity analysis. Results and discussion: Our results show that not considering the interdependencies between building products in building LCAs results in underestimating the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 28.29%. This discrepancy is primarily attributed to a failure to account for additional material flows stemming from secondary replacements owing to the interdependencies during the life cycle. When accounting for end-of-life recovery benefits, a zero-energy building (ZEB) design incorporating some DfD principles demonstrated up to 45.94% lower embodied GHG emissions than the ZEB design with low disassembly potential when assuming that recovered products will be reused. Conclusions: Our approach provides first-of-a-kind evidence that not accounting for recovery potential may significantly distort the results of an LCA for buildings. The method and its supporting code support the semi-automated calculation of the otherwise neglected potential environmental impact, thus helping to drive the transition towards a more sustainable built environment. The supporting code allows researchers to build on the proposed framework if more data on the relationship between DP and RP become available in the future. Finally, while applied to buildings in this paper, the proposed framework is adaptable to any complex product with limited modifications in the supporting code.
|
|
| 10. |
- Andersen, Julie Swartz, et al.
(författare)
-
Economic comparison of mass timber and concrete construction in the nordic region
- 2023
-
Ingår i: 13th World Conference on Timber Engineering, WCTE 2023. ; 7, s. 4360-4369
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The timber sector has been growing strongly in various regions of the world. Yet, the construction industry is still far from being sustainable. One barrier is the economic concern in planning and construction works of timber constructions. This study aims to provide insights on the cost performance of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) constructions for stakeholders to make an informed decision. It analysed the production cost of multi-story residential buildings with CLT in comparison to concrete in Norway and Sweden. The production cost data of various construction projects with either CLT or concrete was collected and analysed. Interviews with stakeholders were conducted to complement the interpretation of the cost data. The result showed that each project had its individual conditions in the economic background and requirements by client, and thus it was difficult to formulate a general tendency on the cost performance. The variability of the cost was larger and the average production cost was higher in CLT cases. Yet, there are high incentives of contractors and clients for a more sustainable alternative in general. The incentive is also reinforced by the general experience of contractors that the construction cost is better optimized as the contractor gains more experiences.
|
|
| 11. |
- Andersen, Sarah Cecilie, et al.
(författare)
-
Environmental impacts of circularity in the built environment: How do system boundaries affect decision support?
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Developments in the Built Environment. - 2666-1659. ; 18
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA) have become a common tool of decision support in the built environment regarding environmental impacts. The goal of this study is to investigate the influence of different LCA approaches and system boundaries on decision support regarding circular design strategies. Three different ways of applying attributional LCA (ALCA) and one consequential LCA (CLCA) are assessed using a case study of a wooden beam with either virgin or reclaimed timber. While the conclusions are not readily scalable, the case study's results indicate that using reclaimed material is environmentally beneficial when applying ALCA. However, when applying CLCA the reclaimed material performs worse than the virgin material. This highlights the potential pitfalls of scaling up solutions based on LCA results without considering the broader consequences. While the current ALCA approach is useful for declarations, it may not provide comprehensive decision support for driving a transition in the built environment.
|
|
| 12. |
- de Wolf, Catherine, et al.
(författare)
-
Database of Embodied Quantity Outputs: Lowering Material Impacts Through Engineering
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Architectural Engineering. - 1076-0431. ; 26:3
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Current studies and performance labels focus mainly on the operational energy demand of buildings due to heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and hot water, but they rarely account for embodied impacts. Performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) on an entire building structure, let alone a building, requires time and data, both of which are often lacking for practitioners in the construction industry. Limited knowledge on the embodied carbon equivalent of building structures led to the benchmarking effort of the database of embodied quantity outputs (DEQO), developed by the first author over the last 6 years in close collaboration with industry and academia. DEQO collects material quantities for existing buildings in a robust way directly from industry. This paper presents the lessons learned from this database to define the next steps for structural engineers to lower the environmental impacts related to the material quantities in their projects. To create confidence and comparability in the results, recommendations are given such as implementing uncertainty analysis into practice to avoid inaccurate comparisons with a false sense of precision.
|
|
| 13. |
- Feng, Haibo, et al.
(författare)
-
Where to focus? Developing a LCA impact category selection tool for manufacturers of building materials
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 405
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied to improve the environmental performance of the building sector. However, due to the complexity of LCA results including the multitude of impact categories, decision makers of the building materials manufacturing industry are grappling with allocating their limited resources to the most influential impact categories. The aim of this article, therefore, is to propose an impact category selection tool that enables performance improvement of building materials without sacrificing the validity of LCA results. The developed method selects common building materials, and defines foreground processes that can be influenced by manufacturers of building materials and background processes that can hardly be impacted using the US Input-Output database. Following the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) analysis with the ReCiPe2016 Midpoint method, our results indicate that, among the 18 impact categories of the ReCiPe2016 Midpoint method, Global Warming Potential, Ozone Formation and Human Health, Fine Particulate Matter Formation, Ozone Formation and Terrestrial Ecosystems, Terrestrial Acidification, and Terrestrial Ecotoxicity should be considered the first priority group while Ionizing Radiation, Freshwater Eutrophication, Marine Eutrophication, Freshwater Ecotoxicity, Water Consumption should be placed in the last priority group. It further suggests that by shifting the limited available resources to the first priority group, decision makers can readily improve the environmental performance of building materials during the manufacturing process. The contribution of the proposed selection tool lies in that it can be adapted by decision makers to different geographical contexts, LCIA methods, and building materials to efficiently ameliorate the environmental performance of the building sector.
|
|
| 14. |
- Forth, Kasimir, et al.
(författare)
-
BIM4EarlyLCA: An interactive visualization approach for early design support based on uncertain LCA results using open BIM
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Developments in the Built Environment. - 2666-1659. ; 16
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To meet the European climate goals in the building sector, a holistic optimization of embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the method of life cycle assessments (LCA) are necessary. The early design stages have high impact on the final performance of the buildings and are characterized by high uncertainty due to the lack of information and not yet taken decisions. Furthermore, most current LCA approaches based on Building Information Models (BIM) require high expertise and experience in both BIM and LCA and do not follow an intuitive visualization approach for other stakeholders and non-experts. This paper presents a novel design-decision-making approach for reducing embodied GHG emissions by interactive, model-based visualizations of uncertain LCA results. The proposed workflow is based on open BIM data formats, such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and BIM Collaboration Format (BCF), and is developed for decision support for non-LCA experts in the early design stages. With the help of a user study, the prototypical implementation is tested by 103 participants with different levels of experience in BIM and LCA based on a case study. We evaluate the proposed approach regarding the support of open BIM data formats, different LCA visualization strategies, and the intuitiveness of different approaches to visualizing uncertain LCA results. The user study results show a broad acceptance and need for open BIM data formats and model-based LCA visualization but less for visualizing uncertainties, which needs further research. In conclusion, this interactive, model-based visualization approach using color coding supports non-LCA experts in the design decision-making process in early design stages.
|
|
| 15. |
- Forth, Kasimir, et al.
(författare)
-
Interactive visualization of uncertain embodied GHG emissions for design decision support in early stages using open BIM
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Life-Cycle of Structures and Infrastructure Systems - Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering, IALCCE 2023. ; , s. 3634-3641
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- To meet the European climate goals in the building sector, a holistic calculation and optimization of embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) in early design stages are necessary. Hence, this paper presents a comprehensive and transparent design-decision-making approach for reducing embodied GHG emissions in early design stages by interactive, model-based visualizations of uncertain results. The proposed approach is based on a previously developed Natural Language Processing (NLP) based methodology of matching elements of a Building Information Model (BIM) to those of an LCA database. With the help of a prototypical implementation and a case study, the uncertainties of the derived LCA results are visualized using different levels of transparencies. This paper shows that open BIM models and the proposed 3D color coding support the hotspot analysis in combination with box plot diagrams for visualizing uncertain GWP results for decision-making in early design stages.
|
|
| 16. |
- Galimshina, Alina, 1993, et al.
(författare)
-
Bio-based materials as a robust solution for building renovation: A case study
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-9118 .- 0306-2619. ; 316
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Boosting building renovation is urgently needed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Building retrofit can be achieved by energy-efficient measures such as thermal insulation or replacement of a fossil heating system. Currently, conventional materials that are mostly used for envelope insulation raising the risk of a lock-in situation where measures to mitigate climate change are actually contributing to it. Bio-based materials are a promising alternative as they can be used to not only reduce the energy consumption of a building but also temporarily store carbon. To evaluate the potential benefits of such materials, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) are commonly used. Such assessment allows the analysis of a building over its whole life. However, considering that buildings are very long lasting systems, many associated uncertainties can affect the outcome of LCA and LCCA. To account for all the uncertainty sources and provide a robust solution for building renovation, uncertainty quantification can be applied. In this paper, we use robust optimization under uncertainties to define the most cost-effective and climate-friendly solution. We apply bio-based materials and include carbon storage calculation in the integrated LCA and LCCA. For the robust optimization, we use a novel methodology combining a well-known non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) with surrogate modeling to lower computational cost. The methodology is applied for a case study located in Switzerland. The results show that bio-based materials provide a robust solution for building renovation but to achieve the highest reduction potential, bio-based envelope insulation should be combined with the replacement of the existing fossil heating system.
|
|
| 17. |
- Galimshina, Alina, 1993, et al.
(författare)
-
High-resolution and localized parametric embodied impact calculator of PV systems
- 2023
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 1196:1
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Buildings are responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. In order to decarbonize the electricity grid and reduce the environmental impact of the building stock, photovoltaic panels can be installed. However, in order to assess the environmental impact of PVs, the whole life cycle has to be considered including embodied emissions. Several options for photovoltaics exist on the market or are under development including silicon-based panels, thin films, and third generation panels. Currently, many configurations of the panels exist making it difficult to estimate the embodied impact. The goal of this paper is to close this gap by providing a parametric PV carbon calculator for designers and decision-makers. In this study, the embodied impact of different PV types and configurations is assessed. First, the life cycle inventories data and bill of quantities for different generations' panel types are gathered. Second, life cycle impact assessment is performed. The results of the analysis are presented in a form of a software application allowing users to select the panel's composition, e.g., frame and glass type, cell type, encapsulant, etc. The developed application will assist in understanding the impact of choices made in regards to PV systems and will support engineers and architects in the selection of the photovoltaic panels from embodied impact perspective.
|
|
| 18. |
- Galimshina, Alina, 1993, et al.
(författare)
-
Robust and resilient renovation solutions in different climate change scenarios
- 2020
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 588:3
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Building renovation is currently urgent in order to decrease the energy consumption of a building stock. In order to achieve robust renovation scenarios, uncertainty quantification is needed. Climate change scenarios are important factors and need to be included in the analysis. In this paper, three climate change scenarios are applied probabilistically for a renovation scenario using dimensionality reduction techniques and further uncertainty propagation. The results show that RCP2.6 provides more robust results and saves on average 2.10^5 CHF and 2.10^5kgCO2eq. in a building life cycle comparing to RCP 8.5. The analysis under climate change is also compared to the probabilistic calculations under current climate and the results show the underestimation of both costs and environmental impacts when climate change is not included. It can also be clearly seen that even under the best case of RCP 2.6, building renovation is urgently needed to decrease the environmental impacts and costs.
|
|
| 19. |
- Galimshina, Alina, 1993, et al.
(författare)
-
Statistical method to identify robust building renovation choices for environmental and economic performance
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0360-1323. ; 183
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Building renovation is urgently required to decrease the energy consumption of the existing building stock and reduce greenhouse gas emissions coming from the building sector. Selecting an appropriate renovation strategy is challenging due to the long building service life and consequent uncertainties. In this paper, we propose a new framework for the robust assessment of renovation strategies in terms of environmental and economic performance of the building's life cycle. First, we identify the possible renovation strategies and define the probability distributions for 74 uncertain parameters. Second, we create an integrated workflow for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost analysis (LCC) and make use of Sobol’ indices to identify a prioritization strategy for the renovation. Finally, the selected renovation scenario is assessed by metamodeling techniques to calculate its robustness. The results of three case studies of residential buildings from different construction periods show that the priority in renovation should be given to the heating system replacement, which is followed by the exterior wall insulation and windows. This result is not in agreement with common renovation practices and this discrepancy is discussed at the end of the paper.
|
|
| 20. |
- Galimshina, Alina, 1993, et al.
(författare)
-
Strategies for robust renovation of residential buildings in Switzerland
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Nature Communications. - 2041-1723 .- 2041-1723. ; 15:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Building renovation is urgently required to reduce the environmental impact associated with the building stock. Typically, building renovation is performed by envelope insulation and/or changing the fossil-based heating system. The goal of this paper is to provide strategies for robust renovation considering uncertainties on the future evolution of climate, energy grid, and user behaviors, amongst others by applying life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis. The study includes identifying optimal renovation options for the envelope and heating systems for building representatives from all construction periods that are currently in need of renovation in Switzerland. The findings emphasize the paramount importance of heating system replacements across all construction periods. Notably, when incorporating bio-based insulation materials, a balance emerges between environmental impact reduction and low energy operation costs. This facilitates robust, equitable, and low-carbon transformations in Switzerland and similar Northern European contexts while avoiding a carbon spike due to the embodied carbon of the renovation.
|
|
| 21. |
- Galimshina, Alina, 1993, et al.
(författare)
-
What is the optimal robust environmental and cost-effective solution for building renovation? Not the usual one
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-7788. ; 251
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Buildings are responsible for a large share of CO2 emissions in the world. Building renovation is crucial to decrease the environmental impact and meet the United Nations climate action goals. However, due to buildings’ long service lives, there are many uncertainties that might cause a deviation in the results of a predicted retrofit outcome. In this paper, we determine climate-friendly and cost-effective renovation scenarios for two typical buildings with low and high energy performance in Switzerland using a methodology of robust optmization. First, we create an integrated model for life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Second, we define possible renovation measures and possible levels of renovation. Third, we identify and describe the uncertain parameters related to the production, replacement and dismantling of building elements as well as the operational energy use in LCCA and LCA. Afterwards, we carry out a robust multi-objective optimization to identify optimal renovation solutions. The results show that the replacement of the heating system in the building retrofit process is crucial to decrease the environmental impact. They also show that for a building with already good energy performance, the investments are not paid off by the operational savings. The optimal solution for the building with low energy performance includes the building envelope renovation in combination with the heating system replacement. For both buildings, the optimal robust cost-effective and climate-friendly solution is different from the deep renovation practice promoted to decrease the energy consumption of a building.
|
|
| 22. |
- Gonzalez Caceres, Alex Arnoldo, 1982, et al.
(författare)
-
Application and validation of a method to assess the energy reduction and environmental impact of renovation alternatives
- 2023
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 1196:1
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The renovation of residential stock is one of the most promising areas, in terms of energy reduction, because these buildings are highly inefficient and represent the largest part of the building stock. However, the environmental impact assessment over the life cycle of building renovation is rare. It is more common to develop an assessment for new buildings. This study presents a method that combines the evaluation of the benefits of renovating residential buildings, considering cost, energy and environmental benefits using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The method is based on 3 stages of development. First, the database of energy certificates, costs and LCA was analysed. The second step is to develop a workflow in Rhino/Grasshopper/E-Plus to automatically model a residential building and feed the simulation model with the data obtained from the databases. Finally, a simulation campaign was carried out to obtain an optimal renovation package, minimising energy consumption and environmental impact. The research was carried out in a case study in Uddevalla, Sweden. The residential building has different measurements including energy consumption data before and after renovation. This was used to validate the proposed methodology. The validation shows that accurate results are achievable with potential for mass application.
|
|
| 23. |
- Gonzalez Caceres, Alex Arnoldo, 1982, et al.
(författare)
-
Towards digital twinning for multi-domain simulation workflows in urban design: a case study in Gothenburg
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Journal of Building Performance Simulation. - 1940-1493 .- 1940-1507. ; In Press
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This work proposes an automated workflow using digital twinning for multi-domain environmental performance analysis of urban developments. Digital twins can potentially provide a common basis for multi-domain simulations and help overcome data availability and interoperability issues. The proposed workflow consists of five steps: (1) creating a procedural urban 3D model, (2) generating design alternatives parametrically, (3) exporting the context and each design alternative to each simulation tool, (4) running simulations for wind comfort, energy demand, and noise for each design alternative, and (5) combining and visualizing the simulation results using the digital twin. The workflow was applied to a neighbourhood in Sweden, the resultsreveal significant reduction in manual work when applying multiple simulation software for different domains. This is one step forward in streamlining the workflow for urban analysis, crucial for multi-domain optimization. In the future, further domains and simulation tools can be added to the workflow.
|
|
| 24. |
- Hollberg, Alexander, 1985, et al.
(författare)
-
A data-driven parametric tool for under-specified LCA in the design phase
- 2020
-
Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 588:5
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly applied to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings. However, current tools for building LCA require detailed information not available in the decisive early design stages. As a result, LCA is usually applied as post-design evaluation and not used to improve the building design. The goal of this paper is to adapt the method of structured under-specified LCA to the Swiss context and implement it in a design-integrated tool. The users of the tool should be able to get a complete estimation of the life cycle impact based on very few inputs, such as building type, intended use and structural system. In addition, the tool should allow to replace these assumptions with more detailed information step by step throughout the design process. The paper describes the development of a structured database and a parametric tool. Furthermore, it exemplifies the intended workflow during the design process on a building design. The presented approach can be scaled up and adapted to the needs of other national contexts in the future. It facilitates environmental performance optimisation of buildings and supports making use of the big potential the building sector has regarding contributing towards climate action (UN SDG 13).
|
|
| 25. |
- Hollberg, Alexander, 1985, et al.
(författare)
-
A Framework for User Centric LCA Tool Development for Early Planning Stages of Buildings
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Built Environment. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2297-3362. ; 8
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As the high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by the construction and real estate sector receive more attention, more and more countries include an environmental assessment of buildings based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in their building regulations. Sweden introduced mandatory climate declarations in January 2022, for example. To support stakeholders in conducting the climate declarations and using the results to reduce GHG emissions, user-friendly tools for early planning stages are needed. The aim of this study is to develop and test a framework for user centric development of such tools. The framework builds on three steps; 1) interviewing stakeholders to define tool requirements, 2) developing a prototype tool according to the requirements, and 3) evaluating it based on user feedback. We developed and tested the framework in the Swedish context to provide a blueprint applicable to other countries and contexts. The primary target users are architects with computational design experience but also engineers and real estate developers working in early phases. The results show that the users' expectations can be met when the requirements are integrated from the very beginning. In the current version, the developed building LCA tool only targets the embodied GHG emissions from the production and construction phase of the building, but it could be extended to include further life cycle phases in the future.
|
|
