IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v93y2012icp24-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring buildings for sustainability: Comparing the initial and retrofit ecological footprint of a century home – The REEP House

Author

Listed:
  • Bin, Guoshu
  • Parker, Paul

Abstract

The residential sector is recognized as a major energy consumer and thus a significant contributor to climate change. Rather than focus only on current energy consumption and the associated emissions, there is a need to broaden sustainability research to include full life cycle contributions and impacts. This paper looks at houses from the perspective of the ecological footprint (EF), a well-known sustainability indicator. Exemplifying single-detached houses of the early 20th century, the century-old REEP House (downtown Kitchener, Canada), together with its high performance energy retrofits, is examined in detail.

Suggested Citation

  • Bin, Guoshu & Parker, Paul, 2012. "Measuring buildings for sustainability: Comparing the initial and retrofit ecological footprint of a century home – The REEP House," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 24-32.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:93:y:2012:i:c:p:24-32
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.05.055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911003655
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.05.055?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lenzen, M. & Treloar, G., 2002. "Embodied energy in buildings: wood versus concrete--reply to Borjesson and Gustavsson," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 249-255, February.
    2. Yohanis, Y.G. & Norton, B., 2002. "Life-cycle operational and embodied energy for a generic single-storey office building in the UK," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 77-92.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pomponi, Francesco & Moncaster, Alice, 2018. "Scrutinising embodied carbon in buildings: The next performance gap made manifest," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2431-2442.
    2. Alvarez, Sergio & Sosa, María & Rubio, Agustín, 2015. "Product and corporate carbon footprint using the compound method based on financial accounts. The case of Osorio wind farms," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 196-204.
    3. Fan, Yupeng & Qiao, Qi & Xian, Chaofan & Xiao, Yang & Fang, Lin, 2017. "A modified ecological footprint method to evaluate environmental impacts of industrial parks," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 293-299.
    4. Wang, Xiaotong & Lu, Meijun & Mao, Wei & Ouyang, Jinlong & Zhou, Bo & Yang, Yunkai, 2015. "Improving benefit-cost analysis to overcome financing difficulties in promoting energy-efficient renovation of existing residential buildings in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 119-130.
    5. María Rocío Ruiz-Pérez & Mª Desirée Alba-Rodríguez & Raúl Castaño-Rosa & Jaime Solís-Guzmán & Madelyn Marrero, 2019. "HEREVEA Tool for Economic and Environmental Impact Evaluation for Sustainable Planning Policy in Housing Renovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Arumägi, Endrik & Kalamees, Targo, 2014. "Analysis of energy economic renovation for historic wooden apartment buildings in cold climates," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 540-548.
    7. Venkatraj, V. & Dixit, M.K., 2021. "Life cycle embodied energy analysis of higher education buildings: A comparison between different LCI methodologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Roberta Moschetti & Helge Brattebø, 2017. "Combining Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Assessments in Building Energy Renovation Projects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Beccali, Marco & Cellura, Maurizio & Fontana, Mario & Longo, Sonia & Mistretta, Marina, 2013. "Energy retrofit of a single-family house: Life cycle net energy saving and environmental benefits," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 283-293.
    10. Gireesh Nair & Leo Verde & Thomas Olofsson, 2022. "A Review on Technical Challenges and Possibilities on Energy Efficient Retrofit Measures in Heritage Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-20, October.
    11. Étienne Berthold & Kim Pawliw & Mathieu St-Pierre & Francis Pronovost & Léa Méthé, 2024. "Operational Energy in Historic Religious Buildings: A Qualitative Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-21, October.
    12. Thibodeau, Charles & Bataille, Alain & Sié, Marion, 2019. "Building rehabilitation life cycle assessment methodology–state of the art," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 408-422.
    13. Cho, Hyun Mi & Yun, Beom Yeol & Yang, Sungwoong & Wi, Seunghwan & Chang, Seong Jin & Kim, Sumin, 2020. "Optimal energy retrofit plan for conservation and sustainable use of historic campus building: Case of cultural property building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    14. Jagarajan, Rehmaashini & Abdullah Mohd Asmoni, Mat Naim & Mohammed, Abdul Hakim & Jaafar, Mohd Nadzri & Lee Yim Mei, Janice & Baba, Maizan, 2017. "Green retrofitting – A review of current status, implementations and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1360-1368.
    15. Georgios Tsoumanis & João Formiga & Nuno Bilo & Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos & Dimosthenis Ioannidis & Dimitrios Tzovaras, 2021. "The Smart Evolution of Historical Cities: Integrated Innovative Solutions Supporting the Energy Transition while Respecting Cultural Heritage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-29, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dixit, Manish K., 2017. "Life cycle embodied energy analysis of residential buildings: A review of literature to investigate embodied energy parameters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 390-413.
    2. Acquaye, Adolf & Duffy, Aidan & Basu, Biswajit, 2011. "Embodied emissions abatement--A policy assessment using stochastic analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 429-441, January.
    3. Georgiadou, Maria Christina & Hacking, Theophilus & Guthrie, Peter, 2012. "A conceptual framework for future-proofing the energy performance of buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 145-155.
    4. Chandratilake, S.R. & Dias, W.P.S., 2013. "Sustainability rating systems for buildings: Comparisons and correlations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 22-28.
    5. Mohamed, Ahmed M.A. & Al-Habaibeh, Amin & Abdo, Hafez & Elabar, Sherifa, 2015. "Towards exporting renewable energy from MENA region to Europe: An investigation into domestic energy use and householders’ energy behaviour in Libya," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 247-262.
    6. Anna Christy & Marwa Elnahass & Jaime Amezaga & Anthony Browne & Oliver Heidrich, 2024. "A dynamic framework to align company climate reporting and action with global climate targets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3103-3128, May.
    7. Dimoudi, A. & Tompa, C., 2008. "Energy and environmental indicators related to construction of office buildings," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 86-95.
    8. Rai, Deepak & Sodagar, Behzad & Fieldson, Rosi & Hu, Xiao, 2011. "Assessment of CO2 emissions reduction in a distribution warehouse," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 2271-2277.
    9. Dowson, Mark & Poole, Adam & Harrison, David & Susman, Gideon, 2012. "Domestic UK retrofit challenge: Barriers, incentives and current performance leading into the Green Deal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 294-305.
    10. Ignacio Zabalza & Sabina Scarpellini & Alfonso Aranda & Eva Llera & Alberto Jáñez, 2013. "Use of LCA as a Tool for Building Ecodesign. A Case Study of a Low Energy Building in Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-21, August.
    11. Reza Broun & Hamed Babaizadeh & Abolfazl Zakersalehi & Gillian F. Menzies, 2014. "Integrated Life Cycle Energy and Greenhouse Gas Analysis of Exterior Wall Systems for Residential Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-12, November.
    12. Jefferson Torres-Quezada & Tatiana Sánchez-Quezada, 2023. "Dataset of Specific Total Embodied Energy and Specific Total Weight of 40 Buildings from the Last Four Decades in the Andean Region of Ecuador," Data, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-17, April.
    13. Verbeke, Stijn & Audenaert, Amaryllis, 2018. "Thermal inertia in buildings: A review of impacts across climate and building use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2300-2318.
    14. Charles Breton & Pierre Blanchet & Ben Amor & Robert Beauregard & Wen-Shao Chang, 2018. "Assessing the Climate Change Impacts of Biogenic Carbon in Buildings: A Critical Review of Two Main Dynamic Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-30, June.
    15. Browne, David & O'Regan, Bernadette & Moles, Richard, 2009. "Use of ecological footprinting to explore alternative domestic energy and electricity policy scenarios in an Irish city-region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2205-2213, June.
    16. Limmeechokchai, Bundit & Suksuntornsiri, Pawinee, 2007. "Embedded energy and total greenhouse gas emissions in final consumptions within Thailand," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 259-281, February.
    17. Malmqvist, Tove & Glaumann, Mauritz & Scarpellini, Sabina & Zabalza, Ignacio & Aranda, Alfonso & Llera, Eva & Díaz, Sergio, 2011. "Life cycle assessment in buildings: The ENSLIC simplified method and guidelines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1900-1907.
    18. Bao-Jun Tang & Pi-Qin Gong, 2014. "Evaluating newly added embodied energy inventory of China and the United States: An economic input-output LCA model," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 50, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    19. Yvan Dutil & Daniel Rousse & Guillermo Quesada, 2011. "Sustainable Buildings: An Ever Evolving Target," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-22, February.
    20. Yvan Dutil & Daniel Rousse, 2012. "Energy Costs of Energy Savings in Buildings: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(8), pages 1-22, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:93:y:2012:i:c:p:24-32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.