Sustainability assessment within the residential building sector: a practical life cycle method applied in a developed and a developing country
More than ever, the residential building sector is concerned with improving the social, economic<br/>and environmental indicators of sustainability. In order to overcome the increasing concern of today's<br/>resource depletion, environmental considerations and to address sustainabil...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2009 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/8582 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://www.tdx.cat/TDX-0318110-110515 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/8582 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | environmental impacts Colombia sustainability LCA 504 62 624 |
| Sumario: | More than ever, the residential building sector is concerned with improving the social, economic<br/>and environmental indicators of sustainability. In order to overcome the increasing concern of today's<br/>resource depletion, environmental considerations and to address sustainability indicators, a practical<br/>life cycle method has been proposed to decision making integrating environmental and socioeconomical<br/>aspects to analyse the impact of sustainability within the residential building sector using<br/>two practical life cycle methods. One method is the Material and Energy Analysis (MEA) which is<br/>suggested as an appropriate tool to provide a systematic picture of the direct and physical flows of the<br/>use of natural resources and the other is the environmental management tool of Life Cycle<br/>Assessment (LCA) as a complement to evaluate environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the<br/>system.<br/>Furthermore, the method provides sustainability information that facility an adequate decision<br/>making towards sustainable development at macro and micro levels. Sustainability assessment at<br/>macro level is determined by exogenous variables that can influence the development of a country.<br/>Meanwhile sustainable at the micro level is made within the limits of the whole building life cycle,<br/>starting from the construction, use (operation and maintenance) and finishing with the end-of-life<br/>phase. To illustrate it, a case study has been carried out based on the application to two buildings, one<br/>located in Barcelona, Spain and one situated in Pamplona, Colombia. Then, the main objective of this<br/>thesis is to propose a practical life cycle method including environmental and socio-economical<br/>aspects to evaluate indicators that explicitly measure the residential building sector's impacts. This<br/>thesis has also provided initiatives for residential dwellings to reduce environmental impacts and assist<br/>stakeholders in improving customer patterns during the dwelling life cycle.<br/>The findings of this thesis state that the appropriate combination of building materials,<br/>improvement in behaviours and patterns of cultural consumption, and the application of government<br/>codes would enhance decision-making in the residential building sector towards sustainability. The<br/>difference in consumption in Colombia and Spanish dwellings is not only due to the variation in results<br/>for bio-climatic differences but also because of the consumption habits in each country. The<br/>importance of consumption habits of citizens and the need to decouple socio-economic development<br/>from energy consumption are sought for achieving sustainability from a life cycle perspective. There is<br/>a crucial necessity to provide satisfaction to basic needs and comfort requirements of population with<br/>reasonable and sustainable energy consumption.<br/>Therefore, there is no doubt that applying environmental managements tools as Life Cycle<br/>Assessment (LCA) and Material and Energy Analysis (MEA) to the full building life cycle can be very<br/>important for reducing environmental loads and thereby improving sustainability indicators. Then, any<br/>improvement in building sustainability is oriented generally to building materials, energy use and waste<br/>management in all phases of the building life cycle, having always in mind that building has to be<br/>xxviii<br/>accessible from an economical and social part of view. The type of standard dwelling varies<br/>substantially depending on the geographic location where it is built. Climate, technological, cultural,<br/>socio-economical differences clearly define the standard of a building in any context and in any region.<br/>This leads to important differences in the LCA results and it means that any extrapolation of existing<br/>European LCA data to the case of a developing country would imply important errors. However, the<br/>function is always the same, to provide protection and housing for its habitants. |
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