INDUSTRIAL BUILDING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

(LCA)
CASE STUDY USING THREE DIFFERENT LCA SOFTWARE TOOLS

JOHANNA MERO, RAMBOLL FINLAND OY

31.5.2016 - WBC16 - TAMPERE HALL

BACKGROUND

- In the EU, buildings and the construction sector account

for:
- 42 % of final energy consumption
- 35 % of GHG emissions
- 50 % of extracted raw materials
- 30 % of overall water consumption

- Legislation and regulation is becoming stricter and the industry is also developing
voluntary actions and initiatives to tackle these problems.
- Awareness of industry actors is rising simultaneously with demand from the clients’ side
 Only the
measurable is
manageable

The results can be

used to support
Life Cycle Assessment decision making
(LCA) is a tool that throughout the
helps quantifying the project
environmental impacts
over the whole
building life cycle
BUILDING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

EN 15978-2011
RESEARCH QUESTIONS & GOALS

1. Quantify the environmental life cycle impacts of an

industrial building.
2. See how the results settle in line with existing LCA
results obtained for residential and office buildings.
3. Find out whether the results differ when calculated
using three different LCA software tools.
4. Interview industry actors to form an understanding
of building LCA markets.
LCA PROCESS (SIMPLIFIED)

1. Construction material bill of quantities (BIM)

2. Assumptions and best estimates:
• Transportation distances, maintenance & EOL
scenarios…
3. Modelling of product system in LCA software tools
à Embodied life cycle impacts
4. Energy simulations
à Operational energy use
5. Emission factors
à Operational impacts

à Total LCA results

 RESULTS

Total impacts
Operational impacts 2,68E+07 kg CO2 eq
Embodied impacts 2,13E+07 kg CO2 eq 2136 kg CO2 eq/m2
29,3 CO2 eq/m2,year 35,6 kg CO2 eq/m2,year

Global Share of
Building life-
cycle stage
Warming total
Potential impacts 2%
kg CO2e %
A1-A3 4,66E+06 84,60 %
Construction Materials
A4 1,37E+05 2,49 % 17 %
B1-B3 5,20E-02 0,00 % 1%
Transportation to site
1%
B4-B5 2,11E+05 3,83 %
C1 5,87E+04 1,07 % Use, maintenance and
C2 2,94E+04 0,53 % repair
C3-C4 4,12E+05 7,48 % Operational energy use
Total 5,51E+06 100
End-of-life
79 %
RESULTS – CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS – 3 DIFFERENT TOOLS

Greenhouse gas emissions in kg CO2 eq

Building life-cycle stage SimaPro 360Optimi ILMARI

Construction
A1-3 materials 4,69E+06 4,66E+06 5,20E+06
manufacturing

ILMARI

360Optimi

SimaPro

0,E+00 1,E+06 2,E+06 3,E+06 4,E+06 5,E+06 6,E+06

CONCLUSIONS

• Industrial building LCA results in

line with previous research
• Commercial LCA software tools
developed for industry use are
able to produce results that are
comparable to building LCA
results obtained in scientific
research
• Tool selection doesn’t seem to
significantly affect the results
WHY LCA?

- To steer building design towards solution with lower environmental impacts

- Quality assurance
- Marketing and communication opportunities
- Way to separate from competitors
- To gain points in environmental certification schemes:
- LEEDv4 New Construction – MRc Building life-cycle impact reduction (3-4 p)
- BREEAM International 2016 New Construction – Mat01 Life cycle impacts (1-6 p)
- DGNB, HQE…

- Monetary benefits
QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

Johanna Mero

M.Sc. (Tech.), Consultant, LEED AP (BD+C)

Green Building, Real Estate Consulting
M +385 40 558 7101fi
_________________
Ramboll Finland Oy
Säterinkatu 6
02601 Espoo FINLAND

INDUSTRIAL BUILDING LCA

31.5.2016