Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House
Alternative building materials have the potential to reduce environmental pressure from buildings, though the use of these materials should be guided by an understanding of the embodied environmental impacts. Extensive research on embodied greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has been conducted,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Architecture |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/2/4/37 |
| _version_ | 1797625014518808576 |
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| author | Stavroula Bjånesøy Jukka Heinonen Ólafur Ögmundarson Áróra Árnadóttir Björn Marteinsson |
| author_facet | Stavroula Bjånesøy Jukka Heinonen Ólafur Ögmundarson Áróra Árnadóttir Björn Marteinsson |
| author_sort | Stavroula Bjånesøy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Alternative building materials have the potential to reduce environmental pressure from buildings, though the use of these materials should be guided by an understanding of the embodied environmental impacts. Extensive research on embodied greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has been conducted, but other impacts are less frequently reported. Furthermore, uncertainty is rarely reported in building LCA studies. This paper provides a piece for filling those gaps by comprehensively reporting the embodied environmental impacts of a fiberglass house within the LCA framework, modeled in the OpenLCA software using the Ecoinvent 3.7.1 inventory database. The ReCiPe 2016 impact assessment method is used to report a wide range of environmental impacts. The global warming potential is calculated to be 311 kgCO<sub>2</sub> eq/m<sup>2</sup>. Additionally, a hotspot analysis is included to identify areas that should be the focus for improvement, as well as an uncertainty analysis based on Monte Carlo. The embodied emissions are given context by a scenario analysis over a 50-year use phase in three different grid conditions and with two different energy efficiency levels. Based on the results of this study, it is determined that fiberglass does not provide a viable alternative to conventional building materials if the purpose is to reduce embodied emissions from buildings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:50:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-30353a5e3486445897398ea46027f45d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-8945 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:50:50Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Architecture |
| spelling | doaj.art-30353a5e3486445897398ea46027f45d2023-11-16T16:13:46ZengMDPI AGArchitecture2673-89452022-11-012469071010.3390/architecture2040037Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot HouseStavroula Bjånesøy0Jukka Heinonen1Ólafur Ögmundarson2Áróra Árnadóttir3Björn Marteinsson4Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland, Hjardarhagi 2-6, 107 Reykjavik, IcelandFaculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland, Hjardarhagi 2-6, 107 Reykjavik, IcelandFaculty of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Iceland, Aragata 14, 101 Reykjavik, IcelandFaculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland, Hjardarhagi 2-6, 107 Reykjavik, IcelandFaculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland, Hjardarhagi 2-6, 107 Reykjavik, IcelandAlternative building materials have the potential to reduce environmental pressure from buildings, though the use of these materials should be guided by an understanding of the embodied environmental impacts. Extensive research on embodied greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has been conducted, but other impacts are less frequently reported. Furthermore, uncertainty is rarely reported in building LCA studies. This paper provides a piece for filling those gaps by comprehensively reporting the embodied environmental impacts of a fiberglass house within the LCA framework, modeled in the OpenLCA software using the Ecoinvent 3.7.1 inventory database. The ReCiPe 2016 impact assessment method is used to report a wide range of environmental impacts. The global warming potential is calculated to be 311 kgCO<sub>2</sub> eq/m<sup>2</sup>. Additionally, a hotspot analysis is included to identify areas that should be the focus for improvement, as well as an uncertainty analysis based on Monte Carlo. The embodied emissions are given context by a scenario analysis over a 50-year use phase in three different grid conditions and with two different energy efficiency levels. Based on the results of this study, it is determined that fiberglass does not provide a viable alternative to conventional building materials if the purpose is to reduce embodied emissions from buildings.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/2/4/37fiberglasslife cycle assessment (LCA)alternative building materialssustainable built environmentembodied emissionshotspot analysis |
| spellingShingle | Stavroula Bjånesøy Jukka Heinonen Ólafur Ögmundarson Áróra Árnadóttir Björn Marteinsson Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House Architecture fiberglass life cycle assessment (LCA) alternative building materials sustainable built environment embodied emissions hotspot analysis |
| title | Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House |
| title_full | Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House |
| title_fullStr | Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House |
| title_short | Fiberglass as a Novel Building Material: A Life Cycle Assessment of a Pilot House |
| title_sort | fiberglass as a novel building material a life cycle assessment of a pilot house |
| topic | fiberglass life cycle assessment (LCA) alternative building materials sustainable built environment embodied emissions hotspot analysis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/2/4/37 |
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