Abstract
A whole building life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed on a Living Building, focusing on impacts from green building materials, a decentralized water system, a net-positive use phase, and the end-of-life of structural materials. The material processes used in this LCA were adjusted from standard to green by removing the use of toxic chemicals; results show carcinogenic impacts decreased by up to 96%. The septic system used for wastewater treatment contributes to 41% of the global warming potential [GWP, kg CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent)] over the building's assumed 100-year lifespan due to methane emissions. The on-site solar panels generate more electricity than the site demands, allowing for 44,000 kWh of green energy to be returned to the grid based on 1 year of performance. Lastly, an exploratory scenario analysis performed on multiple waste streams for structural materials shows that the GWP impacts for the end-of-life could vary from +14,000 to −10,500 kg CO2eq depending on the waste stream. The results of this LCA indicate that the case study building is net-zero energy and water, but not net-zero carbon.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, including takeoff quantities, Red List adjustment quantities, and additional life cycle inventory assessment data.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the University of Pittsburgh's Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation for their support. Additionally, the author would like to thank the Pittsburgh Park's Conservancy for their continuous cooperation and participation. This research was also supported by the National Science Foundation under 1038139, 1323190, and 1934824.
References
Al-Ghamdi, S. G., and M. M. Bilec. 2017. “Green building rating systems and whole-building life cycle assessment: Comparative study of the existing assessment tools.” J. Archit. Eng. 23 (1): 04016015. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AE.1943-5568.0000222.
Bare, J. 2012. Tool for the reduction and assessment of chemical and other environmental impacts (TRACI) user’s manual, v2.1. Washington, DC: USEPA.
Berggren, B., M. Hall, and M. Wall. 2013. “LCE analysis of buildings—Taking the step towards net zero energy buildings.” Energy Build. 62: 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.02.063.
Blengini, G. A. 2009. “Life cycle of buildings, demolition and recycling potential: A case study in Turin, Italy.” Build. Environ. 44 (2): 319–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2008.03.007.
BRE. 2018. “BREEAM New construction 2018 (UK).” Accessed February 12, 2019. https://www.bregroup.com.
Cornejo, P. K., Q. Zhang, and J. R. Mihelcic. 2016. “How does scale of implementation impact the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment integrated with resource recovery?” Environ. Sci. Technol. 50 (13): 6680–6689. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b05055.
ecoinvent. 2018. “ecoinvent database.” Accessed July 8, 2018. https://www.ecoinvent.org/database/database.html.
Fouquet, M., A. Levasseur, M. Margni, A. Lebert, S. Lasvaux, B. Souyri, C. Buhé, and M. Woloszyn. 2015. “Methodological challenges and developments in LCA of low energy buildings: Application to biogenic carbon and global warming assessment.” Build. Environ. 90: 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.03.022.
GBI (Green Building Initiative). 2014. “GreenGlobes: Design for new construction.” Accessed February 9, 2019. http://www.greenglobes.com.
Guggemos, A. A., and A. Horvath. 2006. “Decision-support tool for assessing the environmental effects of constructing commercial buildings.” J. Archit. Eng. 12 (4): 187–195. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1076-0431(2006)12:4(187).
Hammond, G. P., and C. I. Jones. 2008. “Embodied energy and carbon in construction materials.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Energy 161 (2): 87–98.
Hasik, V., N. E. Anderson, W. O. Collinge, C. L. Thiel, V. Khanna, J. Wirick, R. Piacentini, A. E. Landis, and M. M. Bilec. 2017. “Evaluating the life cycle environmental benefits and trade-offs of water reuse systems for net-zero buildings.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (3): 1110–1119. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b03879.
Hendrickson, T. P., M. T. Nguyen, M. Sukardi, A. Miot, A. Horvath, and K. L. Nelson. 2015. “Life-cycle energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of a building-scale wastewater treatment and nonpotable reuse system.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 49 (17): 10303–10311. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b01677.
ICC (International Code Council). 2015. “ICC Plumbing Code 2015 of Pennsylvania.” Chap. 13 in Nonpotable water systems. Accessed January 28, 2019. https://www.iccsafe.org/.
ILFI (International Living Future Institute). 2018. “Declare label.” Accessed February 21, 2018. https://living-future.org/declare/.
ILFI (International Living Future Institute). 2019. Living building challenge 4.0: A visionary path to a regenerative future. Seattle: ILFI.
ISO. 2006. Environmental management—Life cycle assessment—Requirements and guidelines. Geneva: ISO.
IWBI (International Well Building Institute). 2018. WELL v2 pilot. WELL Building Standard. New York: IWBI.
JSBC (Japan Sustainable Building Association). 2014. “CASBEE for buildings (new construction).” Accessed February 12, 2019. http://www.ibec.or.jp/CASBEE/.
Junnila, S., and A. Horvath. 2003. “Life-cycle environmental effects of an office building.” J. Infrastruct. Syst. 9 (4): 157–166. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1076-0342(2003)9:4(157).
Levasseur, A., P. Lesage, M. Margni, and R. Samson. 2013. “Biogenic carbon and temporary storage addressed with dynamic life cycle assessment.” J. Ind. Ecol. 17 (1): 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00503.x.
Leverenz, H. L., G. Tchobanoglous, and J. Darby. 2010. Evaluation of greenhouse Gas emissions from septic systems. Alexandria, VA: Water Environment Research Foundation.
McKechnie, J., S. Colombo, J. Chen, W. Mabee, and H. L. MacLean. 2011. “Forest bioenergy or forest carbon? Assessing trade-offs in greenhouse gas mitigation with wood-based fuels.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 45 (2): 789–795. https://doi.org/10.1021/es1024004.
NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory). 2012. “US Life cycle inventory database.” Accessed March 2, 2018. https://www.lcacommons.gov/nrel/search.
OST (On-Screen Takeoff). 2018. OST 3.95—Welcome to On-screen takeoff 3.95. Houston: On Center Software.
PHI (Passive House Institute). 2018. “Passive house building certification.” Accessed February 12, 2019. https://passivehouse.com/.
Sartori, I., and A. G. Hestnes. 2007. “Energy use in the life cycle of conventional and low-energy buildings: A review article.” Energy Build. 39 (3): 249–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2006.07.001.
Scheuer, C., G. A. Keoleian, and P. Reppe. 2003. “Life cycle energy and environmental performance of a new university building: Modeling challenges and design implications.” Energy Build. 35 (10): 1049–1064. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7788(03)00066-5.
Sierra Club. 2018. Open letter: Climate-smart cross-laminated timber: Mass timber buildings and forest stewardship. San Francisco: Sierra Club.
Simonen, K. 2014. Life cycle assessment. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Singh, A., G. Berghorn, S. Joshi, and M. Syal. 2011. “Review of life-cycle assessment applications in building construction.” J. Archit. Eng. 17 (1): 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AE.1943-5568.0000026.
SRI (Steel Recycling Institute). 2017. “Steel recycling.” Accessed August 11, 2018. https://www.steelsustainability.org/recycling.
Thiel, C., N. Campion, A. E. Landis, A. K. Jones, L. A. Schaefer, and M. M. Bilec. 2013. “A materials life cycle assessment of a net-zero energy building.” Energies 6 (2): 1125–1141. https://doi.org/10.3390/en6021125.
Thormark, C. 2002. “A low energy building in a life cycle—Its embodied energy, energy need for operation and recycling potential.” Build. Environ. 37 (4): 429–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-1323(01)00033-6.
USDC (United States District Court). 2007. Consent decree: ALCOSAN and US EPA. Pittsburgh: USDC.
USDHHS (US Department of Health and Human Service). 2001. Toxicological profile for asbestos. Washington, DC: USDHHS.
USDOE (United States Department of Energy). 2012. Building energy data book. Washington, DC: USDOE.
USEPA. 2014. Emissions factors for greenhouse gas inventories. Washington, DC: USEPA.
USEPA. 2016. Documentation for greenhouse gas emissions and energy factors used in the waste reduction model (WARM). Washington, DC: USEPA.
USEPA. 2017. “EnergyStar.” Accessed February 12, 2019. https://www.energystar.gov/.
USEPA. 2018. Advancing sustainable materials management: 2015 fact sheet. Assessing trends in material generation, recycling, composting, combustion with energy recovery and landfilling in the United States. Washington, DC: USEPA.
USGBC (US Green Building Council). 2018. LEED v4 for building design and construction. Washington, DC: USGBC.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 4 • December 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 2, 2019
Accepted: Jul 13, 2020
Published online: Sep 14, 2020
Published in print: Dec 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Feb 14, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.