sustainability assessment methodologies and tools - upt · sustainability assessment methodologies...

Sustainability assessment methodologies

and tools:

Environmental Indicators for

Buildings

Adrian Ciutina

Lecture 5: 15/03/2017

European Erasmus Mundus Master Course

Sustainable Constructions

under Natural Hazards and Catastrophic Events520121-1-2011-1-CZ-ERA MUNDUS-EMMC

L10 – B.2 – Mechanical properties of cast iron, mild iron and steel at historical structures


Sustainable Constructions under Natural

Hazards and Catastrophic Events

Environmental Indicators for Buildings

Environmental Indicators

Indicators are quantified information which help to explain how

things are changing over time.

They have three basic functions:

- simplicity; - quantification; - communication.

The last function (quantification) is the main function of indicators and for a

communication with large audience simplicity is needed.

IndicatorsAn indicator is something that helps you understanding where you are, which

way you are going and how far you are from destination (sustainable

measures).







• An indicator point to weak areas of the topic

• An indicator shows how to fix the problem.

Indicators

An indicator distils information derived from analysing data obtained by

monitoring and data collection.

The main aspect of an indicator is to visualise important and determining

ingredients of complex information.

Decision makers (ranging from individual consumers to high level policy makers) often

decide to take action or not by the help of simplified knowledge they got from

indicators.







ECONOMIC INDICATORS

For many years, a limited number of key economic measures have been used

to judge how the economy is performing such as:

- level of employment

- rate of inflation

- the balance of payments

- public sector borrowing etc…

These statistics give an overall picture but they do not explain why particular

trends are occurring, and do not necessarily reflect the situation of a particular

societal or industrial area.

They do, however, provide policy-makers and the public with reasonable

indicators for changes in the economy, assisting economic policy decision

making and allowing the public to judge for themselves how the economy is

performing overall.







SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS

The sustainability indicators are different from traditional indicators of

economic, social and environmental progress.

Traditional indicators (e.g. profit, asthma rate, water quality) measure the

changes in one part of the community as if it is entirely independent of the

other parts.

For communities with economic, social or environmental problems, good

indicators can point out the way to a better future.

For all communities, indicators can generate discussions among people with

different backgrounds and viewpoints, and, in the process, help to create a

vision of what the community should be.

The indicators chosen to reflect sustainability should be responsive and

“forecastable” to changes in different management strategies and public policy,

so they can reflect how economic changes affect sustainability concerns.







SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS

There are a wide variety of indicators used in attempting the quantification of

sustainability. Among other suggested characteristics, the sustainability

indicators should offer:

- simplicity;

- coverage (environmental, social, economic) with or without various

overlapping;

- quantification;

- allowing the trend identification and determination;

- sensitivity to change.

OBS: Some of the general public is concerned about sustainability and

environment. They like to be informed about the state of the environment and

the economy and how and why they are changing. Because of being simplified,

indicators can help this general public to understand the core part of the topic.







According to European Environment Agency glossary, an indicator is a

parameter or a value derived from parameters that describe the state of the

environment and its impact on the human beings, ecosystems and materials, the

pressure on the environment, the driving forces and the responses steering at

the system;

By ISO 14050 (Environmental Management) – indicators are quantitative,

qualitative or descriptive measures that when periodically evaluated and

monitored show the direction of change;

By ISO 14031 (Environmental Management – Environmental performance

evaluation) – environmental condition indicator represents a specific expression

that provides information about local, regional, national or global condition of the

environment;

By ISO 14031 (Environmental Management – Environmental performance

evaluation) – environmental performance indicator represents a specific

expression that provides information about an organization’s environmental

performance;







ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS FOR BUILDINGS AND CONSTRUCTIONS

Environmental assessment tools can be seen as different sets of environment

indicators. Considering the environmental assessment tools for building the

following areas are generally covered:

- energy and pollution;

- water, building materials and wastes;

- indoor environment;

- site and ecology.

Each area contains typically 5 to 10 indicators.

In general they are generally of very different kind in different tools and vary as:

- problem oriented indicators (e.g. CO2 equivalent);

- feature oriented indicators (e.g. labelled whitegoods);

- procedure oriented indicators (e.g. development of an energy

management plan);

Their environmental relevance differs in great extent, such as a change in the

indicator should also lead to a substantial change in environmental impact.

The diversity of tool content emanates from lack of consensus about measuring

the degree of sustainability of a building.








The indicators should present a compromise between theoretical (validity,

reliability and accuracy) and practical demands (cost, intelligibility and

possibility to influence) etc.

The next step (ongoing research) is finding a systematic approach for a

rational selection of indicators.

DPSIR framework for choosing environmental indicators

Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Responses(Environmental Indicators: Typology and Overview; European Environment Agency: Copenhagen, Denmark, 1999)








Example of DPSIR framework for choosing environmental indicators in urban

eco-system (Development and Application of a New Grey Dynamic Hierarchy Analysis System (GDHAS) for

Evaluating Urban Ecological Security)







POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

The aim of LCA is to assess the potential environmental impacts associated

with identified inputs and releases.

For the evaluation of the environmental impacts, the most common

environmental categories in LCA are (LVS background document, 2014):

- Global warming potential (GWP)

- Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP)

- Acidification Potential (AP)

- Eutrophication Potential (EP)

- Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP)

- Abiotic Depletion Potential






GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL (GWP)

Global warming (EPS, 2009)






GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL (GWP)

The “Greenhouse effect”, is due to the Infrared (IR) active gases, which are

naturally present in the Earth’s atmosphere (e.g. H2O, CO2 and O3), that

absorb the terrestrial (infrared) energy (or radiation) leaving the Earth and

reflect some of this heat back to earth, contributing to warm the surface and

the lower atmosphere.

The concentration of these gases, also known as Green House Gases (GHG),

has been increasing since the industrial period, and is enhancing the natural

Earth’s greenhouse effect, causing a temperature rise at the Earth’s surface

and giving rise to concern over potential resultant climate changes

Not all GHG are alike. While CO2 is the most ubiquitous GHG, there are a

number of other gases which contribute to climate change in the same way as

CO2. The effect of different GHG is reported using GWP.

GWP is a relative measure of the amount of CO2 which would need to be

released to have the same radiative forcing effect as a release of 1 kg of the

GHG over a particular time period. GWP is therefore a way of quantifying the

potential impact on global warming of a particular gas.

The GWP indicator is expressed in kg of CO2 equivalents.






OZONE DEPLETION POTENTIAL (ODP)

Ozone depletion (Blendspace, 2013)

Ozone-depleting gases cause

damage to stratospheric ozone

or the “ozone layer” by releasing

free radical molecules which

breakdown ozone (O3).

Damage to the ozone layer

reduces its ability to prevent

ultraviolet (UV) light entering the

earth’s atmosphere, increasing

the amount of carcinogenic UVB

light hitting the earth’s surface.

This in turn results in health

problems in humans such as

skin cancer or cataracts and sun

related damage to animals and

crops.

The major ozone depleting

gases are CFCs, HCFCs and

halons.






Growing concern in the 1980s led to world-wide efforts to curb the destruction

of the ozone layer, culminating in the Montreal protocol which banned many of

the most potent ozone depleting gases.

Ozone depletion potential is expressed as the global loss of ozone due to a

substance compared to the global loss of ozone due to the reference

substance CFC-11.

This gives ODP a reference unit of kg chlorofluorocarbon-11 (CFC-11)

equivalent.

The characterization model has been developed by the World Meteorological

Organization (WMO) and defines the ozone depletion potential of different

gases.

The ODP indicator is expressed in kg of CFC-11 equivalents.

OZONE DEPLETION POTENTIAL (ODP)






ACIDIFICATION POTENTIAL (AP)

Acidification potential (The energy library, 2013)






Acidification is the process where air pollution - mainly ammonia (NH3),

sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) - is converted into acid

substances.

Acidifying compounds emitted into the atmosphere are transported by wind

and deposit as acidic particles or acid rain or snow.

When this rain falls, often a considerable distance from the original source of

the gas, it causes ecosystem damage of varying degrees, depending upon the

nature of the landscape ecosystems.

Acidification potential is measured using the ability of a substance to release

H+ ions, which is the cause of acidification, or it can be measured relative to

an equivalent release of SO2.

The AP indicator is expressed in kg of SO2 equivalents.

ACIDIFICATION POTENTIAL (AP)






EUTROPHICATION POTENTIAL (EP)

Eutrophication potential (Wikipedia, 2013a)






Nutrients, such as nitrates and phosphates, are usually added to the soil

through fertilization to stimulate the growth of agricultural products. These

nutrients, but when they end up in sensitive natural water or land areas, this

unintended fertilization may result in overproduction of plants or algae, which, in

turn, can smother other organisms when they die and begin to decay.

Eutrophication or nutrient enrichment, can be classified as the over-enrichment

of water courses. Its occurrence can lead to damage of ecosystems, increasing

mortality of aquatic fauna and flora and to loss of species dependent on low-

nutrient environments.

This leads to an overall reduction in the biodiversity of environments.

Eutrophication is measured using the reference unit of kg nitrogen or

phosphate equivalents. As such it is a measure of the extent to which a

substance in the water causes the proliferation of algae, with nitrogen or

phosphate as the reference substance.

The major contributors to eutrophication are nitrogen compounds, such as

nitrates, ammonia, nitric acid and phosphoric compounds including phosphates

and phosphoric acid.

EUTROPHICATION POTENTIAL (EP)






PHOTOCHEMICAL OZONE CREATION

POTENTIAL (POCP)

Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (EPD, 2013)






In atmospheres containing nitrogen oxides (NOx), a common pollutant and

volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone and other air pollutants can be

created in the presence of sunlight.

Although ozone is critical in the high atmosphere to protect against ultraviolet

(UV) radiation, low level ozone is implicated in impacts as diverse as crop

damage and increased incidence of asthma and other respiratory complaints.

The most common manifestation of the effects of high levels of POCP-

contributing gases is in the summer smogs seen over large cities such as Los

Angeles or Beijing.

The principal source of NOx emissions is fuel combustion while VOCs are

commonly emitted from solvents, which are heavily used in paints and coatings.

The POCP impact category is a measure of the relative ability of a substance to

produce ozone in the presence of NOx and sunlight.

POCP is expressed using the reference substance ethylene. Characterization

factors for POCP have been developed using the United Nations Economic

Commission for Europe (UNECE) trajectory model.

POCP indicator is expressed in kg of ethylene (C2H4) equivalents.

PHOTOCHEMICAL OZONE CREATION

POTENTIAL (POCP)






ABIOTIC DEPLETION POTENTIAL (ADP)

Abiotic Depletion Potential (Wikipedia, 2013b)






Abiotic depletion indicators aim to capture the decreasing availability of non-

renewable resources as a result of their extraction and underlying scarcity. Two

types of indicators are herein considered:

• Abiotic Depletion Elements, addressing the extraction of scarce

elements (and their ores);

• Abiotic Depletion Energy/Fossil Fuels, addressing the use of fossil fuels

as fuel or feedstock.

The Abiotic Depletion Potential for elements (ADPelements) is determined for

each extraction of elements based on the remaining reserves and rate of

extraction.

The ADP is based on the equation Production/Ultimate Reserve which is

compared to the reference case, Antimony (Sb). Different measures use the

economic or ultimate reserve within the earth’s crust.

The Abiotic Depletion Potential (Elements) of resource i (ADPi) is given by the

ratio between the quantity of resource extracted and the recoverable reserves of

that resource, expressed in kg of the reference resource, Antimony.

ADPE indicator is expressed in kg of antimony (the reference resource).







Fossil Fuels were originally measured in the same way, but since 2010 they

have been calculated differently.

In this case, an absolute measure is considered, based on the energy content of

the fossil fuel.

This does not take into account the relative scarcity of different fossil fuels as

fossil fuels are largely transferable resources, but in reality these only vary by

17% between coal (the most common) and gas (the most scarce).

The indicator Abiotic Depletion Fossil is expressed in MJ

ADPFF indicator is expressed in MJ.


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