IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i14p2837-d250955.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Challenges in the Residential Sector: Life Cycle Assessment of Mexican Social Housing

Author

Listed:
  • Diana Carolina Gámez-García

    (Barcelona School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 649 Diagonal Avenue, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Héctor Saldaña-Márquez

    (Barcelona School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 649 Diagonal Avenue, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

  • José Manuel Gómez-Soberón

    (Barcelona School of Building Construction, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 44-50 Doctor Marañón Avenue, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Susana Paola Arredondo-Rea

    (Mochis Faculty of Engineering, Autonomous University of Sinaloa, no number Fuente de Poseidón y Ángel Flores, Los Mochis 81210, Mexico)

  • María Consolación Gómez-Soberón

    (Civil Engineering School, Metropolitan Autonomous University. Av. San Pablo 180, Mexico City 02200, Mexico)

  • Ramón Corral-Higuera

    (Mochis Faculty of Engineering, Autonomous University of Sinaloa, no number Fuente de Poseidón y Ángel Flores, Los Mochis 81210, Mexico)

Abstract

Social Housing (SH) in Mexico has a potentially important role in reducing both the emission of greenhouse gases and the use of non-renewable resources, two of the main challenges facing not only Mexico but the planet as a whole. This work assesses the environmental impact generated by the embodied stages of a typical SH throughout its life cycle (cradle to grave), by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Two types of envelope and interior walls and three types of windows are compared. It was found that SH emits 309 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 and consumes 3911 MJ eq/m 2 in the product stages (A1 to A3) and construction process (A4 to A5); the most important stages are those referring to the products, namely, A1 to A3, B4 (replacement) and B2 (maintenance). Additionally, benefits were found in the use of lightweight and thermal materials, such as concrete blocks lightened with pumice or windows made of PVC or wood. Although the use of LCA is incipient in the housing and construction sector in Mexico, this work shows how its application is not only feasible but recommended as it may become a basic tool in the search for sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Diana Carolina Gámez-García & Héctor Saldaña-Márquez & José Manuel Gómez-Soberón & Susana Paola Arredondo-Rea & María Consolación Gómez-Soberón & Ramón Corral-Higuera, 2019. "Environmental Challenges in the Residential Sector: Life Cycle Assessment of Mexican Social Housing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:14:p:2837-:d:250955
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/14/2837/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/14/2837/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Hoornweg & Natalie Giannelli, 2007. "Managing Municipal Solid Waste in Latin America and the Caribbean : Integrating the Private Sector, Harnessing Incentives," World Bank Publications - Reports 10639, The World Bank Group.
    2. Buyle, Matthias & Braet, Johan & Audenaert, Amaryllis, 2013. "Life cycle assessment in the construction sector: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 379-388.
    3. Silvia Vilčeková & Monika Čuláková & Eva Krídlová Burdová & Jana Katunská, 2015. "Energy and Environmental Evaluation of Non-Transparent Constructions of Building Envelope for Wooden Houses," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-29, October.
    4. Lei, Jiawei & Yang, Jinglei & Yang, En-Hua, 2016. "Energy performance of building envelopes integrated with phase change materials for cooling load reduction in tropical Singapore," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 207-217.
    5. Diana Carolina Gámez-García & José Manuel Gómez-Soberón & Ramón Corral-Higuera & Héctor Saldaña-Márquez & María Consolación Gómez-Soberón & Susana Paola Arredondo-Rea, 2018. "A Cradle to Handover Life Cycle Assessment of External Walls: Choice of Materials and Prognosis of Elements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-24, August.
    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. Yuki Fuchigami & Keisuke Kojiro & Yuzo Furuta, 2020. "Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wood-Plastic Recycled Composite (WPRC) and Verification of the Effect of Reducing Emissions through Multiple Recycling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Mihail Busu, 2019. "The Role of Renewables in a Low-Carbon Society: Evidence from a Multivariate Panel Data Analysis at the EU Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, September.
    3. Yovanna Elena Valencia-Barba & José Manuel Gómez-Soberón & María Consolación Gómez-Soberón & Fernando López-Gayarre, 2020. "An Epitome of Building Floor Systems by Means of LCA Criteria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-25, July.

    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. Diana Carolina Gámez-García & José Manuel Gómez-Soberón & Ramón Corral-Higuera & Héctor Saldaña-Márquez & María Consolación Gómez-Soberón & Susana Paola Arredondo-Rea, 2018. "A Cradle to Handover Life Cycle Assessment of External Walls: Choice of Materials and Prognosis of Elements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-24, August.
    2. Ningshuang Zeng & Yan Liu & Chao Mao & Markus König, 2018. "Investigating the Relationship between Construction Supply Chain Integration and Sustainable Use of Material: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Mingli Li & Guoqing Gui & Zhibin Lin & Long Jiang & Hong Pan & Xingyu Wang, 2018. "Numerical Thermal Characterization and Performance Metrics of Building Envelopes Containing Phase Change Materials for Energy-Efficient Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Bimaganbetova, Madina & Memon, Shazim Ali & Sheriyev, Almas, 2020. "Performance evaluation of phase change materials suitable for cities representing the whole tropical savanna climate region," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 402-416.
    5. Patricia González-Vallejo & Radu Muntean & Jaime Solís-Guzmán & Madelyn Marrero, 2020. "Carbon Footprint of Dwelling Construction in Romania and Spain. A Comparative Analysis with the OERCO2 Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Mao, Ning & Pan, Dongmei & Li, Zhao & Xu, Yingjie & Song, Mengjie & Deng, Shiming, 2017. "A numerical study on influences of building envelope heat gain on operating performances of a bed-based task/ambient air conditioning (TAC) system in energy saving and thermal comfort," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 213-221.
    7. Cui, Li & Chan, Hing Kai & Zhou, Yizhuo & Dai, Jing & Lim, Jia Jia, 2019. "Exploring critical factors of green business failure based on Grey-Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 450-461.
    8. Jinghua Yu & Hongyun Yang & Junwei Tao & Jingang Zhao & Yongqiang Luo, 2023. "Performance Evaluation and Optimum Design of Ventilation Roofs with Different Positions of Shape-Stabilized PCM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-33, May.
    9. Alencastro, João & Fuertes, Alba & de Wilde, Pieter, 2018. "The relationship between quality defects and the thermal performance of buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 883-894.
    10. Ghosh, Aritra & Norton, Brian & Duffy, Aidan, 2016. "Behaviour of a SPD switchable glazing in an outdoor test cell with heat removal under varying weather conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 695-706.
    11. Saafi, Khawla & Daouas, Naouel, 2019. "Energy and cost efficiency of phase change materials integrated in building envelopes under Tunisia Mediterranean climate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    12. Zhang, Yang & Yan, Da & Hu, Shan & Guo, Siyue, 2019. "Modelling of energy consumption and carbon emission from the building construction sector in China, a process-based LCA approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Li, Yantong & Huang, Gongsheng & Xu, Tao & Liu, Xiaoping & Wu, Huijun, 2018. "Optimal design of PCM thermal storage tank and its application for winter available open-air swimming pool," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 224-235.
    14. Xu, Haoxin & Romagnoli, Alessandro & Sze, Jia Yin & Py, Xavier, 2017. "Application of material assessment methodology in latent heat thermal energy storage for waste heat recovery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 281-290.
    15. Mastrucci, Alessio & Marvuglia, Antonino & Leopold, Ulrich & Benetto, Enrico, 2017. "Life Cycle Assessment of building stocks from urban to transnational scales: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 316-332.
    16. Adriana Estokova & Marcela Ondova & Martina Wolfova & Alena Paulikova & Stanislav Toth, 2019. "Examination of Bearing Walls Regarding Their Environmental Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-27, January.
    17. Xu, Bin & Xie, Xing & Pei, Gang & Chen, Xing-ni, 2020. "New view point on the effect of thermal conductivity on phase change materials based on novel concepts of relative depth of activation and time rate of activation: The case study on a top floor room," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    18. Timothy Jena & Sakdirat Kaewunruen, 2021. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments of an Innovative FRP Composite Footbridge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-20, November.
    19. Kailun Feng & Weizhuo Lu & Thomas Olofsson & Shiwei Chen & Hui Yan & Yaowu Wang, 2018. "A Predictive Environmental Assessment Method for Construction Operations: Application to a Northeast China Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-28, October.
    20. Monika Gandhi & Ashok Kumar & Rajasekar Elangovan & Chandan Swaroop Meena & Kishor S. Kulkarni & Anuj Kumar & Garima Bhanot & Nishant R. Kapoor, 2020. "A Review on Shape-Stabilized Phase Change Materials for Latent Energy Storage in Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.

    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:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:14:p:2837-:d:250955. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.