LCA-BASED METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR COMPARATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF NEW BUILDINGS Costantino MENNA, Maria Chiara CARUSO, Domenico ASPRONE, Andrea PROTA Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture – University of Naples Federico II

OUTLINE MOTIVATION PROPOSED METHODOLOGY APPLICATION - CASE STUDY Context and challenges PROPOSED METHODOLOGY Comparative framework based on LCA APPLICATION - CASE STUDY Multifamily residential house – structural materials RESULTS AND DISCUSSION EPD2008 CONCLUSION

Decision Making Process MOTIVATION: Context Sustainability in the construction industry Common goals  looking at the design process from the perspective of engineers and professionals INPUT Methods Decision Making Process Sustainability New Building Design Constraints Minumun requirements Compliance with regulations (e.g. structural code) try to pursue the goals by looking at the results from the perspective of engineers and prationier Standards, regulations, methods and tools are increasingly meeting the needs for sustainability in construction

Italian Regulation for Public Procurement DL 50/2016 MOTIVATION: Context REGULATION (EU) No 305/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9 March 2011 laying down harmonized conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing (25) “Where applicable, the declaration of performance should be accompanied by information on the content of hazardous substances in the construction product in order to improve the possibilities for sustainable construction and to facilitate the development of environment-friendly products. […]” (56) “For the assessment of the sustainable use of resources and of the impact of construction works on the environment Environmental Product Declarations should be used when available.” Italian Regulation for Public Procurement DL 50/2016 Evaluation criteria Environmental and social aspects Environmental resources conservation Effects on environment Assessment based on Life Cycle

MOTIVATION: Challenges Decision Making Process  materials, components, systems…etc. Design choices/options  based on a LCA approach Building Life Cycle Materials Building Two alternative approaches: LCA for Building Materials and Component Combinations  Structural materials LCA of the Whole Process of the Construction  New (and Existing) buildings New Building Existing Building How to evaluate the effects of different design choices at the scale of the building?

MOTIVATION: Challenges Designing and implementing different building configurations (materials, components etc.) single object Verifying that each building configuration satisfies some building performance requirements Performing an LCA of the different building configurations within a standardized LCA framework Evaluate the effects of a design choice at the scale of the building still guaranteeing a set of performances (e.g. amount of materials) Citare alcuni studi comparativi dove non c’è il framework In order to achieve environmental sustainability goals, a comparison between the environmental performance of different design options can be properly carried out by: When an entire building is treated as a single object to be analyzed, the environmental performance assessment by means of LCA would require a rigorous methodological framework

METHODS: Proposed Framework LCA “Extended” system boundary  performances

CASE STUDY: Proposed Framework Residential Building 3 structural materials Increasing the scale of the analysis Specificare che è solo la parte strutturale Scale of the building Comparative analysis

CASE STUDY: Structural Performance Load type Value Units Snow 480 N/m2 Windward 815 Downwind - 490 Earthquake 0.118 ag/g, PGA Internal live loads 2000 Roofing live loads 500 Staircase and balcony live loads 4000 Structural Performance  displacement – ductility class RC Frame Steel Frame Wooden Frame AMOUNT of materials  beams, columns, joints, slabs, stairs, foundations, balconies

CASE STUDY: Life Cycle Assessment LCA Goal&Scope Definition Functional Unit System Boundary Life-Cycle Inventory Life-Cycle Impact Assessment Interpretation of results ISO 14040:2006 – ISO21930:2007 … LCA Software: SimaPro 7.3 LCI Database: EcoInvent 3.0 LCIA Methodology: EPD2008

Environmental outcomes: EPD IMPACT INDICATORS CASE STUDY: Results Environmental outcomes: EPD IMPACT INDICATORS transportation, construction, and maintenance amount to less than 10%. The EoL phase’s impacts equate to 20-50% (steel) of the impact due to extraction and the production of materials * Use phase includes only the maintenance operations

Environmental outcomes: EPD IMPACT INDICATORS CASE STUDY: Results Environmental outcomes: EPD IMPACT INDICATORS There is no apparent straightforward indication for the best environmental performance among the proposed structural options considering all the damage categorie RC Structure ha a lower impact for 5 of 6 impact categories

Limits and further developments CONCLUSION Comparative methodological approach  effectively perform the environmental sustainability assessment of building structures (scale effects) Innovative features  managing external constraints related to minimum design performances (design stage) RC structure provides  the highest impacts only for one category upon six Consider mixed configurations to minimize the environmental impacts Integrate the approach with non structural components Utilize effective tools to support the method (e.g. BIM) in order to facilitate the implementation in the decision making process Limits and further developments

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION Costantino MENNA