Al-Ghamdi, S G (2015) Advancing green building rating systems using life-cycle assessment. PhD thesis, University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Abstract
The aim of this research was to quantitatively analyze the potential ability of life cycle assessment (LCA) in combination with green building rating systems (GBRS), such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), to reduce a building's environmental impacts, considering variations in climate, renewables, energy sources and economic aspects. First, international variations in the energy use and associated environmental life cycle impacts were investigated. A reference Building Information Model (BIM) office building was developed and placed in 400 locations with changes to meet energy standards. LCA was then performed on all the buildings' energy consumption. The results varied considerably between the U. S. (394 ton CO 2 eq) and international (911 ton CO2 eq) locations. Since GBRS are expanding internationally, energy source considerations for buildings should be considered with a particular suggestion of targeted goals reductions versus aggregated certifications. Second, the BIM and LCA models were extended to include on-site renewable energy (wind and solar) and located in 25 locations around the world. An LCA and LCCA were performed to consider different energy sources including renewables and associated prices at each site. Environmental impacts and economics varied dramatically. The requirements of renewable energy generation in existing GBRS need to be developed and changed to be a percentage of what is actually available on-site, instead of a fixed percentage of the building's energy. Third, a comparative analysis was conducted for three whole-building LCA tools available today. The software tools vary in key aspects such as intended users, design stage, and time. One of the most important challenges is a comparison with a baseline. The results indicate that given the same building, the LCA results varied by about 10% in the pre-occupancy impact to 17% in the operational impact. This reinforces the need to not only refine LCA methods for GBRS, but also work towards robust data sets for building systems and products. At a minimum, GBRS should include LCA uncertainty analysis into their systems.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Khanna, V |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building information model; energy consumption; energy use; environmental design; green building; leadership; life cycle; occupancy; renewable energy; standards; uncertainty; variations |
| Index terms: | energy use, building system, energy consumption, office building, life cycle, environmental design, uncertainty analysis, renewable energy, design stage, green building, environmental impact, variation, energy source, comparative analysis, life cycle assessment, certification |
| Subjects: | construction type, environmental impact, professional practice, environmental hazards, engineering systems, value management, sustainability and energy, data analysis and analytics, energy systems, design practice, contractual condition, administrative processes |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Construction Technology, Research Practice, Contract Administration, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here