Page 91 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
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7.2 Case studies in LCA application in the built environment
As introduced above, the built environment is a relatively long-lived component of the economy
and can therefore be seen as an asset. However, as buildings consume energy during operation –
notably in maintaining internal comfort levels, operating lighting and appliances, and in main-
tenance and refurbishment, they also generate environmental impacts. More thermal mass and
insulation, and better design using ESD principles, can reduce the operational energy burden.
However, this may lead to more energy used in producing and constructing buildings in the first
place. There is therefore a question about the optimal balance between the use of products and
materials in buildings, and a buildings’ efficiency during operation: a question well-suited to
LCA, given its suitability for comparing different life cycle stages of a product or service.
There have been numerous applications of LCA to the problem of embodied energy versus
operational energy. The first case study (see Section 7.2.1) illustrates a comparison of embodied
and operational energy use in a major public building. The second case study (see Section
7.2.2) takes a Year 2055 time horizon in recognition that buildings are more long-lived than
other ‘products’, and also extends the limits of traditional LCA application at the ‘per unit of
function’ level, by investigating total building materials flows and environmental impacts in
Australia. The study achieves this by combining LCA with other methodological approaches
in a novel way. The third case study (see Section 7.2.3) also adopts LCA and extends the tradi-
tional approach, this time recognising the performance of building materials in assemblages.
For example, rather than simply assessing bricks as an external cladding material, the Building
Assemblies and Materials Scorecard approach allows the life cycle performance of the whole
wall assembly to be quickly and accurately assessed. The scorecard approach reflects that
buildings are generally more bespoke or unique than other products, and so a specific method
of evaluation on a ‘per product’ basis is useful. The fourth case study (see Section 7.2.4)
examines the application of LCA in a buildings regulation setting in the Netherlands.

7.2.1 Case study 1: Stadium Australia study
Stadium Australia, the centre piece of the Sydney Olympics site, is a well-known example of an
Australian building where LCA was actively used in the design and construction process. The
stadium was built to host the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia and is intended to continue to
be used to host sporting events and concerts for over 50 years to come. The LCA was carried
out by the New South Wales Department of Public Works and Services and ERM Mitchell
McCotter (DPWS 1998). The results were used in detail – to inform the design process; and in
summary – as documentation to verify that the planning policy had been met, to demonstrate
responsibility to the various environmental interest groups, and finally to document the ‘green’
Olympics as an example for others to follow. This case study draws on the original studies of
Janssen and colleagues, and a previous case study by Hes (2003).
The planning policy for Olympic Games projects No. 38 (State Environment Planning Policy
38) required compliance with ESD and the Environmental Guidelines for the Summer Olympic
Games (Sydney Olympics 2000 Bid Environment Committee 1993), specifically that the project
consider environmental impacts over its life cycle (i.e. in its manufacture, use and disposal).
This led to the builder, Multiplex Construction, using LCA to quantify the stadium’s environ-
mental performance. In one of the company’s papers, LCA is described as a method that:
can be used to quantify and assess the environmental impact of any product,
system or service. It is well suited to describing the environmental impact of
buildings and their associated services … LCA provides a way to quantify the
relative importance of building use compared to the rest of the building’s life cycle.
(Janssen 1998)

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