Sébastien Lasvaux

NativeLCA - a systematic approach for the selection of environmental datasets as generic data: application to construction products in a national context

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to propose guidelines for the selection of an accurate life cycle assessment (LCA) dataset of building products to be used as generic data for a national context.MethodsThe guidelines are structured within a methodology, called NativeLCA. First, a review of available datasets for construction products is presented such as generic LCA and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) databases for both national (e.g. France, Germany, Spain etc.) and European context. Secondly, a method is proposed to choose appropriate generic datasets by means of a hybrid methodology. A meta-analysis is conducted in the first step on the sample of collected datasets from the literature. When relevant, product-specific data (EPD of the different producers) are averaged to represent an average data or existing generic data are adapted to be more suitable for the context. Then, a data quality assessment enables to rank the different datasets according to the goal and scope of the study.Results and discussionThis study provides consistent guidelines that can be used by building LCA practitioners to select relevant datasets depending on their goal and scope. A full case study for stone wool boards illustrates and demonstrates the applicability and usefulness of the proposed methodology, namely in the selection of a coherent dataset as generic data for a national context. This work highlights the issues in terms of choice and adaptation of existing data for a national context. Industry data cannot be adapted due to confidentiality issues unlike unit process generic data. The use of data quality indicators then helps to select the relevant generic data for each context according to user needs.ConclusionsWhile further efforts are needed to develop regional and sector-specific LCA databases adapted for each national context, the proposed guidelines showed that the current use or adaptation of existing data, if consistently done, can lead practitioners to increase the reliability of building LCA studies according to their goal and scope definition.

Achieving consistency in life cycle assessment practice within the European construction sector: the role of the EeBGuide InfoHub

PurposeThe objective of the paper is to discuss the role of a new guidance document for life cycle assessment (LCA) in the construction sector available as an online InfoHub.MethodsThis InfoHub derives from the EeBGuide European project that aimed at developing a guidance document for energy-efficient building LCA studies. The InfoHub is built on reference documents such as the ISO 14040-44 standards, the EN 15804 and EN 15978 standards as well as the ILCD Handbook. The guidance document was filled with expertise and knowledge of several experts. The focus was put on providing scientifically sound, yet practical guidance.ResultsThe EeBGuide InfoHub is an online guidance document, setting rules for conducting LCA studies and giving instructions on how to do this. The document has a section on buildings—new and existing—and a section on construction products. It is structured according to the life cycle stages of the European standards EN 15804 and EN 15978, covering all aspects of LCA studies by applying provisions from these standards and the ILCD handbook, wherever applicable. The guidance is presented for different scopes of studies by means of three study types. For the same system boundaries, default values are proposed in early or quick assessment (screening and simplified LCA) while detailed calculation rules correspond to a complete LCA. Such approach is intended to better match the user needs in the building sector.Conclusions and recommendationsThis paper can be viewed as a contribution to the ongoing efforts to improve the consistency and harmonisation in LCA studies for building products and buildings. Further contributions are now needed to improve building LCA guidance and to strengthen links between research, standardisation and implementation of LCA in the construction practice.

Adaptation of environmental data to national and sectorial context: Application for reinforcing steel sold on the French market

PurposeEnvironmental data for steel products are generally proposed at a continental or a global scale. The question we are tackling here is: does the fact that steel as a global market necessarily reduces the need for national data?MethodsIn this study, the environmental impact of reinforcing steel sold in France is evaluated. To do so, a specific environmental inventory is adapted from Ecoinvent database. CML method is used for impact calculation and both methods “recycled content” as well as “end of life recycling approach” are tested.Results and discussionThis study shows that there is a specificity of reinforcing steel products sold in France compared to European value. It is due to the fact that reinforcing steel is mainly made with recycled steel as the market growth for construction product in France is limited allowing a very high recycled content. This result is not sensitive neither to the allocation method used for recycling (cut-off approach or system expansion) nor to transport distance and electricity country mix used.ConclusionsThe result of this study can be used with confidence in every construction site work located on the French territory. Furthermore, the present study advocates for an adaptation of global database to local context defined by a specific industrial sector and a geographic region even for product such as steel that may be considered as a first approximation as a global product.

Linking research activities and their implementation in practice in the construction sector: the LCA Construction 2012 experience

1 Introduction1.1 BackgroundNumerous research activities about life cycle assessment (LCA)appliedtobuildings,andmorerecentlytocivilengineering,haverisenoverthepastdecades.Environmentalstakesareparticularlyimportantinconstructionbecauseanyinitialdecisionhasalwayslong-termconsequences.Inadditi on,theconstructionsectorbothgenerates and recycles huge amounts of waste; it is generallyconsidered as an important contributor to climate change andinducesirreversiblechangesinlocalenvironments.Tofacethesestakes, industries invest into so-called “green innovations”,andnational or local public authorities are demanding scientificallybased decision support such as LCA. For the time being, LCAresearch appears to be fragmented between LCA practitioners invarious construction fields and LCA methodologists. However,LCApractitionersintheconstructionsectorshareidenticalmeth-odological questions. For example, drastic variations, whichinevitably occur between the early and operational stages ofconstruction projects, have led many research institutions todevelop their own dedicated LCA software tools. These toolsare, however, seldom comparable, since they generally use dif-ferent databases and assumptions. Only close cooperation be-tween LCA methodologists and construction scientists can leadto appropriate methodological developments.To better link LCA research activities and their implemen-tation in practice in the construction sector, the idea of orga-nizing a forum of discussions of recent developments andresearch results was launched in 2011 by IFSTTAR (theFrench Institute for Transport, Development and Networks)on the topics of LCA, recycling, and civil engineering. It wasthenexpandedtoLCAandbuildingswhenCSTB(theFrenchScientific and Technical Centre for Buildings) joined theinitiative. This idea leads to the organization of the firstinternational conference on LCA and Construction with afocus on civil engineering and buildings.1.2 LCA and construction activitiesUsing LCA in the construction activities has different goalsand scopes due to the different scales of the assessment