Evaluation of the completeness of LCA studies for residential buildings

Although life cycle assessment (LCA) is intensively employed in the residential building sector, the incompleteness problem threatens the reliability of LCA. Considering the incompleteness of LCA studies, this study aims at developing a new calculation tool by evaluating an index of completeness (Io...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clean technologies and environmental policy 2022, Vol.24 (1), p.229-250
Main Authors: Dong, Yahong, Liu, Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Buildings
Case studies
Categories
Climate change
Completeness
Depletion
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology
Environmental policy
Eutrophication
Evaluation
Industrial and Production Engineering
Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering
Life cycle analysis
Life cycle assessment
Life cycles
Mathematical analysis
Original Paper
Particulate matter
Reliability
Residential areas
Residential buildings
Sustainable Development
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Summary:Although life cycle assessment (LCA) is intensively employed in the residential building sector, the incompleteness problem threatens the reliability of LCA. Considering the incompleteness of LCA studies, this study aims at developing a new calculation tool by evaluating an index of completeness (IoC) of LCA on residential buildings. An in-depth review on the existing LCA studies is conducted, and the frequently involved processes/materials are identified and listed. The calculation tool, IoC-Res, is subsequently developed, enclosing all the processes/materials in the checklist. IoC-Res can evaluate the completeness of the entire life cycle stages of a residential building, giving results for six impact categories. Case studies are conducted with the evaluation of IoCs for six building cases using IoC-Res. The results demonstrate that IoCs can be significantly different among impact categories. High IoCs are found in the impact categories such as climate change and particulate matter, while low IoCs are observed in eutrophication and metal depletion. The developed IoC-Res can provide a quantitative evaluation on the completeness of LCA of residential buildings and hence helps to guarantee the study quality and ultimately improve the reliability of LCA. Graphic abstract
ISSN:1618-954X
1618-9558
DOI:10.1007/s10098-021-02115-x