A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings
In New Zealand, housing is typically low density, with light timber framing being the dominant form of construction with more than 90% of the market. From 2020, as a result of the global pandemic, there was a shortage of timber in New Zealand, resulting in increased popularity for light steel framin...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Buildings |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/1/50 |
| _version_ | 1827666258820071424 |
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| author | Aflah Alamsah Dani Krishanu Roy Rehan Masood Zhiyuan Fang James B. P. Lim |
| author_facet | Aflah Alamsah Dani Krishanu Roy Rehan Masood Zhiyuan Fang James B. P. Lim |
| author_sort | Aflah Alamsah Dani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In New Zealand, housing is typically low density, with light timber framing being the dominant form of construction with more than 90% of the market. From 2020, as a result of the global pandemic, there was a shortage of timber in New Zealand, resulting in increased popularity for light steel framing, the main alternative to timber for housing. At the same time, the New Zealand government is committed to sustainability practises through legislation and frameworks, such as the reduction of whole-of-life carbon emissions for the building industry. New Zealand recently announced reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% within 2030. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects associated with a product over its life cycle. Despite the popularity of LCA in the construction industry of New Zealand, prior research results seem varied. There is no unified NZ context database to perform an LCA for buildings. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive study using LCA was conducted to quantify and compare the quantity of carbon emissions from two commonly designed houses in the Auckland region, one built from light timber and the other from light steel, both designed for a lifespan of 90 years. The cradle-to-cradle system boundary was used for the LCA. From the results of this study, it was found that the light steel house had 12.3% more carbon in total (including embodied and operational carbons) when compared to the light timber house, of which the manufacturing of two houses had a difference of 50.4% in terms of carbon emissions. However, when the end-of-life (EOL) analysis was included, it was found that the extra carbon could be offset due to the steel’s recyclability, reducing the amount of embodied carbon in the manufacturing process. Therefore, there was no significant difference in carbon emissions between the light steel and the light timber building, with the difference being only 12.3%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:48:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-89bd700ddb4747d5a5e986ddaa85ed5f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-5309 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:48:18Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Buildings |
| spelling | doaj.art-89bd700ddb4747d5a5e986ddaa85ed5f2023-11-23T13:11:28ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092022-01-011215010.3390/buildings12010050A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential BuildingsAflah Alamsah Dani0Krishanu Roy1Rehan Masood2Zhiyuan Fang3James B. P. Lim4Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New ZealandDepartment of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New ZealandDepartment of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New ZealandDepartment of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New ZealandDepartment of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New ZealandIn New Zealand, housing is typically low density, with light timber framing being the dominant form of construction with more than 90% of the market. From 2020, as a result of the global pandemic, there was a shortage of timber in New Zealand, resulting in increased popularity for light steel framing, the main alternative to timber for housing. At the same time, the New Zealand government is committed to sustainability practises through legislation and frameworks, such as the reduction of whole-of-life carbon emissions for the building industry. New Zealand recently announced reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% within 2030. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects associated with a product over its life cycle. Despite the popularity of LCA in the construction industry of New Zealand, prior research results seem varied. There is no unified NZ context database to perform an LCA for buildings. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive study using LCA was conducted to quantify and compare the quantity of carbon emissions from two commonly designed houses in the Auckland region, one built from light timber and the other from light steel, both designed for a lifespan of 90 years. The cradle-to-cradle system boundary was used for the LCA. From the results of this study, it was found that the light steel house had 12.3% more carbon in total (including embodied and operational carbons) when compared to the light timber house, of which the manufacturing of two houses had a difference of 50.4% in terms of carbon emissions. However, when the end-of-life (EOL) analysis was included, it was found that the extra carbon could be offset due to the steel’s recyclability, reducing the amount of embodied carbon in the manufacturing process. Therefore, there was no significant difference in carbon emissions between the light steel and the light timber building, with the difference being only 12.3%.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/1/50life cycle assessmentcarbon emissionsembodied carbonoperational carboncradle-to-cradlelight timber house |
| spellingShingle | Aflah Alamsah Dani Krishanu Roy Rehan Masood Zhiyuan Fang James B. P. Lim A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings Buildings life cycle assessment carbon emissions embodied carbon operational carbon cradle-to-cradle light timber house |
| title | A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings |
| title_full | A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings |
| title_fullStr | A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings |
| title_short | A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings |
| title_sort | comparative study on the life cycle assessment of new zealand residential buildings |
| topic | life cycle assessment carbon emissions embodied carbon operational carbon cradle-to-cradle light timber house |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/1/50 |
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