Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials
Buildings are the key components of urban areas and society as a complex system. A life cycle assessment was applied to estimate the environmental impacts of the resources applied in the building envelope, floor slabs, and interior walls of the Vættaskóli-Engi building in Reykjavik, Iceland. The sco...
Published in: | Buildings |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/387 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings6040046 |
id |
ftopinvisindi:oai:opinvisindi.is:20.500.11815/387 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftopinvisindi:oai:opinvisindi.is:20.500.11815/387 2024-09-09T19:46:18+00:00 Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials Emami, Nargessadat Marteinsson, Björn Heinonen, Jukka Umhverfis- og byggingarverkfræðideild (HÍ) Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (UI) Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ) School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland 2016-11-01 46 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/387 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings6040046 en eng MDPI AG Buildings;6(4) Emami, N.; Marteinsson, B.; Heinonen, J. Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials. Buildings 2016, 6, 46. doi:10.3390/buildings6040046 2075-5309 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/387 Buildings doi:10.3390/buildings6040046 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Buildings Construction materials Environmental impacts assessment Transportation Byggingar Byggingarefni Umhverfisáhrif Flutningar (samgöngur) Skólar info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2016 ftopinvisindi https://doi.org/20.500.11815/38710.3390/buildings6040046 2024-07-09T03:01:56Z Buildings are the key components of urban areas and society as a complex system. A life cycle assessment was applied to estimate the environmental impacts of the resources applied in the building envelope, floor slabs, and interior walls of the Vættaskóli-Engi building in Reykjavik, Iceland. The scope of this study included four modules of extraction and transportation of raw material to the manufacturing site, production of the construction materials, and transport to the building site, as described in the standard EN 15804. The total environmental effects of the school building in terms of global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, human toxicity, acidification, and eutrophication were calculated. The total global warming potential impact was equal to 255 kg of CO2 eq/sqm, which was low compared to previous studies and was due to the limited system boundary of the current study. The effect of long-distance overseas transport of materials was noticeable in terms of acidification (25%) and eutrophication (31%) while it was negligible in other impact groups. The results also concluded that producing the cement in Iceland caused less environmental impact in all five impact categories compared to the case in which the cement was imported from Germany. The major contribution of this work is that the environmental impacts of different plans for domestic production or import of construction materials to Iceland can be precisely assessed in order to identify effective measures to move towards a sustainable built environment in Iceland, and also to provide consistent insights for stakeholders. : The Authors thank Landsvirkjun (The National Power Company) for financing this work, Reykjavik municipality-Technical division for providing documentation and giving access to the building in question and acknowledge Professor Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir for providing access to a license of GaBi. We also thank the Academy of Finland (Grant 286747) for supporting the study. Peer Reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Opin vísindi (Iceland) Buildings 6 4 46 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Opin vísindi (Iceland) |
op_collection_id |
ftopinvisindi |
language |
English |
topic |
Buildings Construction materials Environmental impacts assessment Transportation Byggingar Byggingarefni Umhverfisáhrif Flutningar (samgöngur) Skólar |
spellingShingle |
Buildings Construction materials Environmental impacts assessment Transportation Byggingar Byggingarefni Umhverfisáhrif Flutningar (samgöngur) Skólar Emami, Nargessadat Marteinsson, Björn Heinonen, Jukka Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials |
topic_facet |
Buildings Construction materials Environmental impacts assessment Transportation Byggingar Byggingarefni Umhverfisáhrif Flutningar (samgöngur) Skólar |
description |
Buildings are the key components of urban areas and society as a complex system. A life cycle assessment was applied to estimate the environmental impacts of the resources applied in the building envelope, floor slabs, and interior walls of the Vættaskóli-Engi building in Reykjavik, Iceland. The scope of this study included four modules of extraction and transportation of raw material to the manufacturing site, production of the construction materials, and transport to the building site, as described in the standard EN 15804. The total environmental effects of the school building in terms of global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, human toxicity, acidification, and eutrophication were calculated. The total global warming potential impact was equal to 255 kg of CO2 eq/sqm, which was low compared to previous studies and was due to the limited system boundary of the current study. The effect of long-distance overseas transport of materials was noticeable in terms of acidification (25%) and eutrophication (31%) while it was negligible in other impact groups. The results also concluded that producing the cement in Iceland caused less environmental impact in all five impact categories compared to the case in which the cement was imported from Germany. The major contribution of this work is that the environmental impacts of different plans for domestic production or import of construction materials to Iceland can be precisely assessed in order to identify effective measures to move towards a sustainable built environment in Iceland, and also to provide consistent insights for stakeholders. : The Authors thank Landsvirkjun (The National Power Company) for financing this work, Reykjavik municipality-Technical division for providing documentation and giving access to the building in question and acknowledge Professor Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir for providing access to a license of GaBi. We also thank the Academy of Finland (Grant 286747) for supporting the study. Peer Reviewed |
author2 |
Umhverfis- og byggingarverkfræðideild (HÍ) Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (UI) Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ) School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Emami, Nargessadat Marteinsson, Björn Heinonen, Jukka |
author_facet |
Emami, Nargessadat Marteinsson, Björn Heinonen, Jukka |
author_sort |
Emami, Nargessadat |
title |
Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials |
title_short |
Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials |
title_full |
Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials |
title_fullStr |
Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials |
title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials |
title_sort |
environmental impact assessment of a school building in iceland using lca-including the effect of long distance transport of materials |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/387 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings6040046 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Buildings;6(4) Emami, N.; Marteinsson, B.; Heinonen, J. Environmental Impact Assessment of a School Building in Iceland Using LCA-Including the Effect of Long Distance Transport of Materials. Buildings 2016, 6, 46. doi:10.3390/buildings6040046 2075-5309 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/387 Buildings doi:10.3390/buildings6040046 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11815/38710.3390/buildings6040046 |
container_title |
Buildings |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
46 |
_version_ |
1809915828252966912 |