Martin Erlandsson

Generic LCA-methodology applicable for buildings, constructions and operation services—today practice and development needs

Abstract Environmental improvement in the building sector will be crucial for the societies ecological sustainability development. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the well-known tools used ad hoc for ecological sustainable development. In the implementation of a generic LCA methodology applicable on constructions, the most complex abstraction level for the functional output will focus on the building operation usefulness, which regards services rather than construction properties. Furthermore, constructions or parts of it can be regarded as a streamlined application of an LCA methodology operating on the more complex service building level. A number of significant characteristics valid for a generic LCA methodology for buildings have been put forward and then checked in accordance with “todays practice”, represented by five different LCA concepts utilised for buildings. On this basis, current practice but also development needs have been identified on the following themes; service coverage, life-cycle definition, time dependence (coverage), life-cycle inventory and life-cycle impact assessment.

Environmental assessment of rebuilding and possible performance improvements effect on a national scale

The paper deals with improvements on environmental significant activities related to the life supporting function ‘‘building and housing’’, using life cycle assessment (LCA). In the calculation, back-casting technique is utilised and implies to a future scenario, based on known technology. Besides heating, waste water treatment is a significant issue, according to the definition of building and housing function practised. The main conclusions from the assessment are that rebuilding is an environmentally better choice than the construction of a new building, if the same essential environmentally related functional performance is reached. Furthermore, the case study and the national estimates performed prove that the potential environmental impact can be reduced by about 70% for the heating service and 75% for the waste water system, if the suggested measures are performed. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy and environmental consequences of an additional wall insulation of a dwelling

Abstract Strict economical considerations govern the application of energy conservation measures in buildings. From an environmental perspective, the analysis should include the pollutant effects of manufacturing materials, transport, building and demolition compared to the emissions saved from reduced heating. A Life-Cycle Assessment approach has been used to evaluate an additional external wall insulation measure for a multifamily building. The study shows that the environmental impact of the additional wall insulation has a small pollutant effect compared to the emissions saved. In addition, the profitability is almost equal for insulation thicknesses of between 100 and 170 mm, where the extra building costs for the thicker insulation balance the expected cost savings on fuel purchased in a 40-year perspective. Environmental factors should then favor the thicker insulation.

Attributional life cycle assessment: is a land-use baseline necessary?

PurposeThis paper aims to clarify the application of a land-use baseline in attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) for product systems involving land use, through consideration of the fundamental purpose of ALCA. Currently, there is no clear view in the literature whether a baseline should be used when accounting for environmentally relevant physical flows related to land use.MethodsAn extensive search of literature was carried out using the key terms ‘attributional life cycle assessment’ and ‘attributional LCA’ in the Google Scholar web search engine. Approximately 700 publications were reviewed and summarised according to their type and scope, relevance of land use, key statements and references given for ALCA, and arguments for and against using a baseline in ALCA. Based on the literature review and supplementary literature references, a critical discussion on the use of a baseline and determination of the most appropriate land-use baseline in ALCA is provided.Results and discussionA few studies clearly argued that only absolute (observable) flows without a baseline are to be inventoried in ALCA, while the majority of the studies did not make any clear statement for or against. On the other hand, a land-use baseline was explicitly applied or proposed in a minority of the studies only, despite the fact that we classified land use as highly relevant for the majority of the studies reviewed. Furthermore, the LCA guidelines reviewed give contradictory recommendations. The most cited studies for the definition of ALCA provide general rules for selecting processes based on observable flows but do not argue that observable flows necessarily describe the environmentally relevant physical flows.ConclusionsWe conclude that a baseline is required to separate the studied parts of the technosphere from natural processes and to describe the impact of land use on ecosystem quality, such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity. The most coherent baseline for human-induced land-use in ALCA is natural regeneration. As the natural-regeneration baseline has typically been excluded, may vary bio-geographically and temporally, and is subject to uncertainties, case studies applying it should be performed so that implications can be studied and evaluated. This is particularly important for agricultural and forestry systems, such as food, feed, fibre, timber and biofuels.

On the possibilities to apply the result from an LCA disclosed to public

Aim, Scope and backgroundGiven the communication limitation of a damage-oriented approach, the question addressed in this paper is how normalisation can be developed instead. Normalisation of product service systems without value choices is, in accordance to ISO 14042, suitable for external communication. Reason normalisation approaches use a geographically-defined baseline year of emissions, optionally combined with politically established target emissions (Guinée 2002, Stranddorf et al. 2001). In contradiction to these approaches, this paper aims to draw up the general structure of an alternative normalisation procedure. The normalisation procedure suggested here is based on environmental quality objectives (EQO), in order to streamline the result to include as few output parameters as possible, without compromising the scientific robustness of the method.Main FeaturesThis article describes a normalisation procedure based on environmental quality objectives. Comparison between this approach and a damage-oriented approach is conducted. The relevant working area concerning dose and effect is evaluated. Then a discussion is conducted focusing on the trade-off necessary to achieve an integrated category indicator, covering the following issues; model reliability, user applicability and the unambiguously of the result.ResultA damage-oriented approach will have to take into account all the defined consequences from all impact categories that affect the safeguards in parallel. In other words, each impact category indicator and its potential effects on all safeguards must be evaluated and accounted for. In the case where a single category indicator cannot be found without utilising value choices, a number of category indicators will then have to constitute an intermediate category indicator result, where weighting must be applied in order to streamline the result. In contrast to the above approach, the suggested normalisation procedure utilises the precautionary principle with respect to the essential EQO in order to achieve a category indicator result, called a critical load category indicator result. In practice, this means that the number of figures in an LCIA-profile based on critical load will always be the same as the number of impact categories.ConclusionsThe suggested EQO normalisation procedure forms a set of critical loads per impact category, where each is defined by a critical load function where linearity is defined between a zero load and the critical load. This procedure will affect the temporal resolution and the field of application of the LCIA method. The positive aspect is that the suggested normalisation procedure renders the method applicable for long-lived products like, for example, buildings or other infrastructures. This aspect is gained by reducing the damage-oriented resolution. Consequently, for long-lived products where the main environmental loads will appear in the future, it is hard to assess by a damage-oriented LCIA method (if all boundary conditions are not assumed to be fixed). The EQO normalisation method will, in this respect, improve the overall reliability of the outcome of an LCA when long-lived products are assessed. For short-lived products, adequate boundary conditions can be achieved, and for this reason a damage-oriented approach will have the possibility to address current consequences. Nevertheless, a damage-oriented approach working area is not applicable beneath thresholds unlike the EQO normalisation procedure. The most effective decision support of short-lived products is therefore achieved when both approaches are applied.OutlookA complementary paper will be produced where the described normalisation procedure is exemplified in a case study, with special interest on assessment of chemical substances.

On the validity of natural regeneration in determination of land-use baseline

To the editors: We thankMatthew Brander (Brander 2015) for his response to our paper on the necessity of a land-use baseline in attributional LCA (Soimakallio et al. 2015). Brander supports our key argument that a land-use baseline is necessary in attributional LCA (ALCA). However, Brander raises concerns about the appropriateness of ALCA to support decision-making and questions our claim that natural regeneration is the appropriate land-use baseline for ALCA. Brander presents three arguments against natural regeneration: (1) natural regeneration is not natural as it can occur only after human-induced disturbance, (2) natural regeneration overestimates the forgone carbon sequestration if summed over time, and (3) the use of the natural regeneration baseline to quantify the effect of land occupation aligns with consequential, not attributional, LCA. We would like to emphasize that our paper did not aim to engage in the debate on the choice between ALCA and CLCA. Thus, we merely mention that there are arguments for (e.g. Ekvall et al. 2005) and against (e.g. Plevin et al. 2014) the appropriateness of ALCA to support decision-making. We urge researchers to consider which approach best meets the purpose of their study. On the appropriateness of natural regeneration as a land-use baseline in ALCA, we respond to each of Brander’s criticism in turn, in order to consolidate our arguments on the issue.

Climate impacts from road bridges: effects of introducing concrete carbonation and biogenic carbon storage in wood

Abstract The construction sector faces the challenge of mitigating climate change with urgency. Life cycle assessment (LCA), a widely used tool to assess the climate impacts of buildings, is seldom used for bridges. Material-specific phenomena such as concrete carbonation and biogenic carbon storage are usually unaccounted for when assessing the climate impacts from infrastructure. The purpose of this article is to explore the effects these phenomena could have on climate impact assessment of road bridges and comparisons between bridge designs. For this, a case study is used of two functionally equivalent design alternatives for a small road bridge in Sweden. Dynamic LCA is used to calculate the effects of biogenic carbon storage, while the Lagerblad method and literature values are used to estimate concrete carbonation. The results show that the climate impact of the bridge is influenced by both phenomena, and that the gap between the impacts from both designs increases if the phenomena are accounted for. The outcome is influenced by the time occurrence assumed for the forest carbon uptake and the end-of-life scenario for the concrete. An equilibrium or 50/50 approach for accounting for the forest carbon uptake is proposed as a middle value compromise to handle this issue.