REDUCING BUILDINGS CLIMATE IMPACT

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REDUCING BUILDINGS CLIMATE IMPACT

HARPA BIRGISDOTTIR

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Development of the operational energy requirements

350

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SBi – 24/08/2020 3

Focus on building life cycle

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How to do this?

LCAbyg - tool

National freely available tool

developed for the Danish building sector

First version launched in April 2015 Version 5 in September 2020

complying with the new voluntary sustainability class

About 4500 users, about 400-600 users each month

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Whole life cycle carbon assessment for buildings

Emissions related to Building materials

(Embodied)

Emissions related to Operational energy

consumption

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Greenhouse gas emissions related to built environment on global scale

Emissions related to materials for buildings

and infrastructure (Embodied)

Emissions related to Operational energy

consumption

11% 28%

Bringing embodied carbon upfront, WGBC 2019

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Whole life carbon assessment for an office building – an example

Regulated

Not yet regulated Now in focus in the voluntary sustainability class

28%

72%

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The embodied impacts vary a lot - there is a large potential to reduce

kg CO₂-ækv/m²

Lowest 270 Highest

800 Lowest

140 (-100) Highest

440

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How does it look like for the

buildings we are building today?

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Study with 60 buildings

Purpose

To establish sufficient data background on the

climate impact of buildings in Denmark over their life cycle.

On the basis of this, possible reference values are calculated and suggested

https://sbi.dk/Assets/Klimapaavirkning-fra-60- bygninger/SBi-2020-04.pdf

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Background data

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Residential buildings

Single family houses 11

Terraced houses 12

Apartment buildings 11

Offices 22

Others 4

Total 60

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Materials

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Phases included

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Reference study period

Calculated in the reoprt for 50 and 80 years

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Results: Total carbon footprint calculated over 50 years

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*yr)

Case-buildings

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Results: Total carbon footprint calculated over 50 years

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*yr)

Case-buildings

6,5- 14,5

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Results: Total carbon footprint calculated over 50 years

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*yr)

Case-buildings Bygningsdele Drift

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Total carbon footprint calculated over 50 years - embodied

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*yr)

Case-buildings Bygningsdele Drift

3,7- 10,8

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Total carbon footprint calculated over 50 years Case buildings with wooden load bearing

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*yr)

Case-buildings Andet Trækonstruktion

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Results for building types

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Embodied impacts in a timescale

-300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50

kgCO2-ækv/m2

år

After 50 years:

Lowest: 150 Highest: 550

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Example - Single family houses

21 -300

-200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48

kgCO2-ækv/m2

År

473

176

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1. Learning from the single family houses

SBi – 24.08.2020 22

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2. Learning from the single family houses

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• Biogen carbon in wood – calculation rules for LCA (-/+ rule)

• Carbon sequestration in wood can be included when built (in phase A1-A3)

• Biogen carbon in wood has to be calculated as released by the end of the calculation period (in phase C3-C4)

-300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48

kgCO2-ækv/m2

År

?

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Different methods allowed and used

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-250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 kg CO2-ækv/m2

år

Carbon sequestration

e.g. in Denmark (-/+ rule) Carbon neutral e.g. in Sweden

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Potential for wood in the single family houses (materials / embodied)

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0 2 4 6 8 10

Træ-lav Træ-høj Tung-lav Tung-høj

Carbon footprint: 4 single family houses

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*år)

-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10

Carbon footprint – with the carbon sequestration (forgetting the -/+

rule)

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Potential for wood in the single family houses (materials / embodied)

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0 2 4 6 8 10

Carbon footprint: 4 single family houses

kgCO2-ækv/(m2*år)

-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10

Carbon footprint – with the carbon sequestration (forgetting the -/+ rule)

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Results for 50 years

Embodied and Operational

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Calculation of reference values

- 50 years RSP

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Who can work with these references?

Green building council Denmark – DGNB

Municipalities and building owners with ambitous visions The future building regulation

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Climate partnerships suggestions

Building

regulation Voluntary sustainability

class

2021 12 8,5

-- --

2030 6 3,5 - 4

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Something totally different since

I am often making parallels between the LCA for buildings and calories

etc. in diet

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Earth capacity – the planetary boundaries

A real budget we need to focus on

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SBi – 24.08.2020 33 Steffen et al. (2015). Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science Grafik: Globaïa

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Overconsumption

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70% reduction

in 2030 according to Danish political goals

‘net zero’

in 2050 in order to stay below 1.5°C (IPCC)

Decarbonized buildings

in 2050 (EU through EPBD)

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Focus on our carbon budget (and not only if we are

10 or 20 % better than

last year buildings)

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Assessing absolute sustainability

• Is the environmental impact of the building smaller or larger than the allocated share of the relevant boundary?

• If it is smaller – the building is absolute environmentally

sustainable!

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Assessing absolute sustainability

• Is the environmental impact of the building smaller or larger than the

allocated share of the relevant boundary?

• If it is smaller – the building is absolute environmentally sustainable!

• If it is larger – the building is not absolute environmentally sustainable!

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SBi – 24/08/2020 39

Absolute environmental sustainability – climate change

Assessing building’s absolute environmental sustainability performance using LCA Pernille Ohms^a, Camilla Andersen^a, Freja Nygaard Rasmussen^b, Morten Rydberg^c, Michael Hauschild^c, Morten Birkved^d, Harpa Birgisdottir^b

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Earth capacity – the planetary boundaries

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Is this our

solution?

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It is only a part

of the solution

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We need to look into all solutions possible

• Need for building

• Size of our buildings

• Need for a new building

• Amounts of materials

• Use of wood

• Reuse and recycling (circular economy)

• Ecodesign of all our products

• …and all the innovation we dont know yet about

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SBi – 24/08/2020 44

REDUCING BUILDINGS CLIMATE IMPACT