Comparison of the environmental assessment of an identical office building with national methods

Frischknecht, R.; Birgisdottir, H.; Chae, C.-U.; L�tzkendorf, T.; Passer, A.; Alsema, E.; Balouktsi, M.; Berg, B.; Dowdell, D.; Garc�a Mart�nez, A.; Habert, G.; Hollberg, A.; K�nig, H.; Lasvaux, S.; Llatas, C.; Nygaard Rasmussen, F.; Peuportier, B.; Ramseier, L.; R�ck, M.; Soust Verdaguer, B.; Szalay, Z.; Bohne, R. A.; Bragan�a, L.; Cellura, M.; Chau, C. K.; Dixit, M.; Francart, N.; Gomes, V.; Huang, L.; Longo, S.; Lup�ek, A.; Martel, J.; Mateus, R.; Ouellet-Plamondon, C.; Pomponi, F.; Ryklov�, P.; Trigaux, D.; Yang, W.

Abstract

The IEA EBC Annex 72 focuses on the assessment of the primary energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of buildings during production, construction, use (including repair and replacement) and end of life (dismantling), i.e. during the entire life cycle of buildings. In one of its activities, reference buildings (size, materialisation, operational energy demand, etc.) were defined on which the existing national assessment methods are applied using national (if available) databases and (national/regional) approaches. The "be2226" office building in Lustenau, Austria was selected as one of the reference buildings. TU Graz established a BIM model and quantified the amount of building elements as well as construction materials required and the operational energy demand. The building assessment was carried out using the same material and energy demand but applying the LCA approach used in the different countries represented by the participating Annex experts. The results of these assessments are compared in view of identifying major discrepancies. Preliminary findings show that the greenhouse gas emissions per kg of building material differ up to a factor of two and more. Major differences in the building assessments are observed in the transports to the construction site (imports) and the construction activities as well as in the greenhouse gas emissions of the operational energy demand (electricity). The experts document their practical difficulties and how they overcame them. The results of this activity are used to better target harmonisation efforts.

Citation

Frischknecht, R., Birgisdottir, H., Chae, C.-U., Lützkendorf, T., Passer, A., Alsema, E., Balouktsi, M., Berg, B., Dowdell, D., García Martínez, A., Habert, G., Hollberg, A., König, H., Lasvaux, S., Llatas, C., Nygaard Rasmussen, F., Peuportier, B., Ramseier, L., Röck, M., Soust Verdaguer, B., …Yang, W. (2019, September). Comparison of the environmental assessment of an identical office building with national methods. Presented at Sustainable Built Environment D-A-CH Conference 2019 (SBE19 Graz), Graz, Austria

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: Sustainable Built Environment D-A-CH Conference 2019 (SBE19 Graz)
• Start Date: Sep 11, 2019
• End Date: Sep 14, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Sep 6, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 2, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2020
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Series Title: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
• Series Number: 323
• Series ISSN: 1755-1315
• Book Title: SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT D-A-CH CONFERENCE 2019 (SBE19 Graz) 11–14 September 2019, Graz, Austria
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/323/1/012037
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2690525