Category: General
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1.3.2 European standardization works on LCA of buildings
LCA, as an instrument to assess the environmental performance of buildings and building products, is generally seen as a way to provide a holistic overview of a building’s or product’s life cycle. It is generally standardized in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 as an instrument to assess the environmental performance of products and services. For…
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1.3.3 LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
In numerous European research projects, LCA is used as a supporting study method that is typically seen to be somewhat independent from the rest of the project. If, for instance, LCA is used at the end of a project, the environmental optimization potentials cannot be exploited, as the LCA results cannot be fed back into…
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1.4 EeBGuide within the European context
The primary objective of the EeBGuide is to provide consistent calculation rules and operational guidance for LCA studies conducted within the context of research projects within the Energy-Efficient Buildings European Initiative (E2B EI, or Energy-Efficient Buildings Public Private Partnership, EeB PPP). Such research projects use LCA for supporting decisions during the development of technologies, and/or…
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2.1 Identification of important aspects for product and building LCA studies
The EeBGuide benefits from a comprehensive approach to identifying key aspects of the LCA methodology applied to products and buildings that need further clarification. Using the steps of the LCA framework (goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation), as well as the life cycle stages of a building from cradle to grave, allowed…
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2.2 Reference documents for the EeBGuide
The EeBGuide refers to several sources that provide rules and guidance for LCA practitioners. The first such source is the original ISO standards on life cycle assessment, i.e. [ISO 14040] and [ISO 14044]. In addition, the ILCD Handbook provides extended guidance on LCA in general. The ILCD series of technical guidance documents for LCA have been developed…
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2.3 Procedure for choosing provisions from both CEN TC 350 standards and the ILCD Handbook
The ILCD Handbook was written by a panel of scientific researchers and experts in LCA, whereas the CEN TC 350 standards were written by a panel of building stakeholders as well as LCA experts. The level of detail varies considerably between the CEN standards (around 50 pages) and the ILCD Handbook (around 1000 pages in…
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2.3.1 EeBGuide provisions for different goal definition: strictness vs. flexibility
LCA has been developed as a flexible system that can be adjusted to answer different kinds of question [CALCAS 2009]. In this context, standardization is always a difficult task, as it is done under a specific goal definition (e.g. EN 15804 is developed for giving rules for EPD). According to [CALCAS 2009], standards contribute to…
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2.4 Use of three study types
LCA studies can be undertaken to meet a multitude of different goals, and often different goals are addressed in one single study. Depending on its goals, the study will have a different scope and level of detail. Generally speaking, LCA is an iterative process, as illustrated in the ILCD Handbook (see Figure 6). Figure 6:…
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2.4.1 Screening LCA
Purpose A screening LCA study may serve for an initial (quick) overview of the environmental impacts of a building or a product. The challenge is to adapt the LCA methodology and simplify the use of LCA at the early design stage. With a screening LCA, it is not possible to retrieve detailed results on the…
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2.4.2 Simplified LCA
Purposes A simplified LCA study can be conducted for a quick assessment of a building or a product. The challenge is to adapt the LCA methodology and simplify its use, but to a more advanced LCA stage than for a screening LCA. With a simplified LCA, a pragmatic approach is applied to a building or…