Environmental benchmarks for buildings: a critical literature review
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BUILDING COMPONENTS AND BUILDINGS
Environmental benchmarks for buildings: a critical literature review D. Trigaux 1,2,3
&
K. Allacker 1 & W. Debacker 2,3
Received: 10 March 2020 / Accepted: 1 November 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Purpose To reduce the environmental impact of the building sector, environmental targets considering the full life cycle of buildings can be supportive. In recent years, various benchmarks based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have been developed as part of regulations, labelling systems, sustainability rating tools and research studies. The objective of this paper is to critically analyse 23 existing benchmarking systems focusing on the benchmark methodology but also on the benchmark applications and communication. Methods The critical literature review consists of two parts. In a first part, the choices related to the assessment method, functional equivalent, definition of benchmark values, benchmark scope, benchmark applications and benchmark communication are compared. In the second part, benchmark values are compiled from literature and statistically analysed. Results and discussion The comparative analysis allows to identify the main approaches and methods used in benchmarking systems. For each evaluation aspect, the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches are highlighted. The statistical analysis provides insight in the spread of benchmark values. Important variations are found between the literature sources which can be explained by differences in benchmark approach, scope, system boundaries and applications. Conclusions Based on the comparative analysis, recommendations are formulated for the development of LCA benchmarks for the building sector. The results of the statistical analysis furthermore provide reference values which can be used for the validation of future benchmarks. For global warming, the statistical values for the full life cycle impacts (i.e. embodied and operational impacts) range from about 15 up to 35 kg CO2 eq/m2.a. Keywords Environmental targets . Life cycle assessment . Climate targets . Embodied impacts . Performance classes
1 Introduction The building sector has a major impact on the environment. In Europe, this sector is responsible for about 50% of the use of natural resources, 40% of the energy use and 16% of the water use (Ebert et al. 2011). Buildings are furthermore responsible for 36% of the total CO2 emissions in the EU (European Commission 2019). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an internationally accepted and widely used method to assess and Communicated by: Alexander Passer * D. Trigaux [email protected] 1
Department of Architecture, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1/2431, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
2
EnergyVille, Thor Park 8310, 3600 Genk, Belgium
3
Unit Smart Energy & Built Environment, VITO, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
optimize the environmental impact of buildings over their entire life cycle. The European Commission (EC) recognises the relevance of considering the env
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