IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i9p2472-d543643.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life-Cycle Assessment of a Rural Terraced House: A Struggle with Sustainability of Building Renovations

Author

Listed:
  • Karel Struhala

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Veveří 331/95, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic)

  • Milan Ostrý

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Veveří 331/95, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic)

Abstract

Contemporary research stresses the need to reduce mankind’s environmental impacts and achieve sustainability. One of the keys to this is the construction sector. New buildings have to comply with strict limits regarding resource consumption (energy, water use, etc.). However, they make up only a fraction of the existing building stock. Renovations of existing buildings are therefore essential for the reduction of the environmental impacts in the construction sector. This paper illustrates the situation using a case study of a rural terraced house in a village near Brno, Czech Republic. It compares the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the original house and its proposed renovation as well as demolition followed by new construction. The LCA covers both the initial embodied environmental impacts (EEIs) and the 60-year operation of the house with several variants of energy sources. The results show that the proposed renovation would reduce overall environmental impacts (OEIs) of the house by up to 90% and the demolition and new construction by up to 93% depending on the selected energy sources. As such, the results confirm the importance of renovations and the installation of environmentally-friendly energy sources for achieving sustainability in the construction sector. They also show the desirability of the replacement of inefficient old buildings by new construction in specific cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Karel Struhala & Milan Ostrý, 2021. "Life-Cycle Assessment of a Rural Terraced House: A Struggle with Sustainability of Building Renovations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:9:p:2472-:d:543643
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2472/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2472/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cabeza, Luisa F. & Rincón, Lídia & Vilariño, Virginia & Pérez, Gabriel & Castell, Albert, 2014. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) of buildings and the building sector: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 394-416.
    2. Strantzali, Eleni & Aravossis, Konstantinos, 2016. "Decision making in renewable energy investments: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 885-898.
    3. Marta Bottero & Federico Dell’Anna & Vito Morgese, 2021. "Evaluating the Transition Towards Post-Carbon Cities: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-28, January.
    4. Li, Y. & Kubicki, S. & Guerriero, A. & Rezgui, Y., 2019. "Review of building energy performance certification schemes towards future improvement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Marta Maria Sesana & Mathieu Rivallain & Graziano Salvalai, 2020. "Overview of the Available Knowledge for the Data Model Definition of a Building Renovation Passport for Non-Residential Buildings: The ALDREN Project Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.
    6. Li, Clyde Zhengdao & Lai, Xulu & Xiao, Bing & Tam, Vivian W.Y. & Guo, Shan & Zhao, Yiyu, 2020. "A holistic review on life cycle energy of buildings: An analysis from 2009 to 2019," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Anand, Chirjiv Kaur & Amor, Ben, 2017. "Recent developments, future challenges and new research directions in LCA of buildings: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 408-416.
    8. 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.
    9. Qiu, Yueming & Kahn, Matthew E., 2019. "Impact of voluntary green certification on building energy performance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 461-475.
    10. Delia D’Agostino & Paolo Zangheri & Luca Castellazzi, 2017. "Towards Nearly Zero Energy Buildings in Europe: A Focus on Retrofit in Non-Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Wei, Wu & Skye, Harrison M., 2021. "Residential net-zero energy buildings: Review and perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    12. Emanuele Bonamente & Andrea Aquino, 2019. "Environmental Performance of Innovative Ground-Source Heat Pumps with PCM Energy Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Craig Langston & Edwin H. W. Chan & Esther H. K. Yung, 2018. "Hybrid Input-Output Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Construction Cost Differences between New-Build and Refurbished Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Antonello Monsù Scolaro & Stefania De Medici, 2021. "Downcycling and Upcycling in Rehabilitation and Adaptive Reuse of Pre-Existing Buildings: Re-Designing Technological Performances in an Environmental Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Kong, Minjin & Lee, Minhyun & Kang, Hyuna & Hong, Taehoon, 2021. "Development of a framework for evaluating the contents and usability of the building life cycle assessment tool," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. 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.
    4. Mastrucci, Alessio & Marvuglia, Antonino & Benetto, Enrico & Leopold, Ulrich, 2020. "A spatio-temporal life cycle assessment framework for building renovation scenarios at the urban scale," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Paúl Espinoza-Zambrano & Carlos Marmolejo-Duarte & Alejandra García-Hooghuis, 2023. "Libro del Edificio Electrónico (LdE-e): Advancing towards a Comprehensive Tool for the Management and Renovation of Multifamily Buildings in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Alvaro Llaria & Jessye Dos Santos & Guillaume Terrasson & Zina Boussaada & Christophe Merlo & Octavian Curea, 2021. "Intelligent Buildings in Smart Grids: A Survey on Security and Privacy Issues Related to Energy Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-37, May.
    8. Xabat Oregi & Rufino Javier Hernández & Patxi Hernandez, 2020. "Environmental and Economic Prioritization of Building Energy Refurbishment Strategies with Life-Cycle Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-22, May.
    9. Backe, Stian & Zwickl-Bernhard, Sebastian & Schwabeneder, Daniel & Auer, Hans & Korpås, Magnus & Tomasgard, Asgeir, 2022. "Impact of energy communities on the European electricity and heating system decarbonization pathway: Comparing local and global flexibility responses," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    10. Xingqiang Song & Christel Carlsson & Ramona Kiilsgaard & David Bendz & Helene Kennedy, 2020. "Life Cycle Assessment of Geotechnical Works in Building Construction: A Review and Recommendations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    11. Zhang, Chunbo & Hu, Mingming & Laclau, Benjamin & Garnesson, Thomas & Yang, Xining & Tukker, Arnold, 2021. "Energy-carbon-investment payback analysis of prefabricated envelope-cladding system for building energy renovation: Cases in Spain, the Netherlands, and Sweden," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    12. Pan, Wei & Li, Kaijian & Teng, Yue, 2018. "Rethinking system boundaries of the life cycle carbon emissions of buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 379-390.
    13. David Bienvenido-Huertas, 2020. "Analysis of the Relationship of the Improvement of Façades and Thermal Bridges of Spanish Building Stock with the Mitigation of Its Energy and Environmental Impact," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    14. Lee, Nayoon & Tae, Sungho & Gong, Yuri & Roh, Seungjun, 2017. "Integrated building life-cycle assessment model to support South Korea's green building certification system (G-SEED)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 43-50.
    15. Graziano Salvalai & Marta Maria Sesana & Diletta Brutti & Marco Imperadori, 2020. "Design and Performance Analysis of a Lightweight Flexible nZEB," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-27, July.
    16. Ricardo Ramírez-Villegas & Ola Eriksson & Thomas Olofsson, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures–Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, January.
    17. Ziyu Duan & Seiyong Kim, 2023. "Progress in Research on Net-Zero-Carbon Cities: A Literature Review and Knowledge Framework," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-27, August.
    18. Apostolopoulos, Vasilis & Mamounakis, Ioannis & Seitaridis, Andreas & Tagkoulis, Nikolas & Kourkoumpas, Dimitrios-Sotirios & Iliadis, Petros & Angelakoglou, Komninos & Nikolopoulos, Nikolaos, 2023. "Αn integrated life cycle assessment and life cycle costing approach towards sustainable building renovation via a dynamic online tool," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    19. Edward Majewski & Anna Komerska & Jerzy Kwiatkowski & Agata Malak-Rawlikowska & Adam Wąs & Piotr Sulewski & Marlena Gołaś & Kinga Pogodzińska & Jean-Loup Lecoeur & Barbara Tocco & Áron Török & Michele, 2020. "Are Short Food Supply Chains More Environmentally Sustainable than Long Chains? A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the Eco-Efficiency of Food Chains in Selected EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-26, September.
    20. Hossein Omrany & Veronica Soebarto & Ehsan Sharifi & Ali Soltani, 2020. "Application of Life Cycle Energy Assessment in Residential Buildings: A Critical Review of Recent Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-30, January.

    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:14:y:2021:i:9:p:2472-:d:543643. 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.