Environmental impact assessment with Madaster and OneClickLCA – a comparison study
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Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2024-06-10
Department
Major/Subject
Energy Systems
Mcode
Degree programme
Nordic Master Programme in Innovative and Sustainable Energy Engineering (ISEE)
Language
en
Pages
64+26
Series
Abstract
To meet the sustainability goals and comply with low-emission building standards and certification systems, the construction sector has predominantly focused on improving the energy efficiency of buildings to reduce operational carbon emissions. However, minimizing the embodied carbon of constructions can play a crucial role in achieving these aims. One approach to achieve this is monitoring and regulating the inflow and outflow of materials. This thesis specifically examines the embodied carbon through a cradle-to-gate Live cycle assessment (LCA) of a warehouse building, located in Germany. Additionally, it provides a comparative assessment of two LCA tools - Madaster and OneClickLCA, highlighting their opportunities, limitations, and specific applicability. The results of this study aim to determine the materials that contribute most significantly to the building's net global warming potential. By conducting a sensitivity analysis, where the environmental performance of concrete and insulation materials is varied, potential strategies of mitigating the negative impacts are identified. Furthermore, due to the comparative nature of this work, the importance of digitalization and methods of Building information modelling implementation into LCA tools and calculations are determined. Upon completion of the investigation, it became clear that the lack of common regulations and project deliverables within European union member states, coupled with lagging of the construction sector's digitalization, necessitates urgent actions of the sector to meet sustainability goals. The upkeep of robust Material passports, sensible material use, and diligent data recording can facilitate accurate conduction of the often complex embodied carbon evaluation process. The case study relied on project documentation, data inventory, manual data management, assumptions, and literature findings. Although these elements may be prone to limitations and uncertainties, the literature review and case study provide a foundation for further exploration of building emissions-related topics and the extension of the LCA to a cradle-to-cradle study.Description
Supervisor
Ferrantelli, AndreaThesis advisor
Arias Hurtado, JaimeKeywords
life cycle analysis, embodied carbon, construction sector, environmental impact assessment, building information modelling