The construction industry is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, making it crucial to implement changes within this sector to reduce the global ecological footprint. One key goal is to lower emissions from construction materials, which can significantly impact our efforts to combat climate change. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted on facade materials to compare the environmental impact of different alternatives. The comparison is based on the Kopparterrassen project, a residential complex to be built in Borlänge. The assessment is carried out using the One Click LCA tool. The study cases involve four different facade materials, each evaluated across three Reference Study Periods (RSPs): 50, 100 and 150 years. The materials assessed are brick, wood, composite stone, and metal panel. The aim of the study is to gain more knowledge about the materials used in the current design (brick and metal panel) and to compare them with alternative solutions (wood and composite stone) to determine how to achieve the lowest climate impact throughout the building’s life cycle. The study was carried out with three main objectives: assessing which facade material has the lowest environmental impact throughout the construction lifecycle, evaluating the importance of the RSP and how it affects the final results, and recommending alternatives that can result in environmental savings. The study evaluates the long-term performance of various facade materials for the Kopparterrassen project. The results indicate that the brick facade demonstrates the best overall performance across the three studied impact categories: Global Warming Potential (GWP), eutrophication potential marine and water use. The wooden facade performs well with 150-year reference study period (RSP) in the GWP and eutrophication potential marine categories with 27.09kg CO2e of wall and 0.06kg N eq. per m² of wall respectively, but poorly in water use with 96.58m³ deprived per m² of wall. The composite stone facade also shows good performance in all categories, though it is significantly outperformed by the brick facade that contributes 30.19kg CO2e, 0.05kg N eq. and 16.14m³ water deprived per m² of wall to the three studied categories. Conversely, the metal panel facade exhibits the highest impact in GWP and eutrophication potential marine categories over a 150-year RSP with 138.52kg CO2e, 0.14kg N eq. per m² of wall accordingly . Furthermore, this assessment underscores the importance of evaluating multiple RSPs, as materials' performance varies over time. In conclusion, brick and composite stone emerge as the most suitable facade solutions in a long term perspective for the Kopparterrassen project based on the study's findings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:du-48870 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Erica, Rondon, Lisie |
| Publisher | Högskolan Dalarna, Institutionen för information och teknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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