Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemEPiC grasshopper: A bottom-up parametric tool to quantify life cycle embodied environmental flows of buildings and infrastructure assets(Elsevier BV, 2024-01)Reducing the embodied environmental flows of built assets is becoming increasingly important and is a key priority for actors in the built environment to improve life cycle environmental performance. Policies and related targets for embodied environmental flow reductions are emerging. Despite this, tools for quantifying the life cycle embodied environmental flows of built assets are limited in variety and scope. Parametric life cycle assessment (LCA) tools have emerged to address some of these limitations. These tools can enhance decision making, be embedded directly into CAD programs, and offer real-time LCA calculations across multiple design variations. Yet, existing parametric tools for LCA rely on process-based material environmental flow data, limited geometries, limited real-time data visualisation capacity, and often require specialised technical expertise to use. These gaps limit their ability to provide transparent, robust, and rapid assessments. This paper introduces EPiC Grasshopper, an open-source, open-access, bottom-up, parametric tool that enables the quantification of life cycle embodied environmental flows at the early stages of built asset design, bridging the aforementioned gaps. The key characteristics and functionalities of the tool are described, followed by verification (checking that calculations are correct), validation (checking that results are representative of reality), and demonstration of its application to two built asset case studies, i.e. parametrically-defined Australian house and road. The paper shows how the tool can be used to generate designs to meet specific embodied environmental flow targets as well as streamline and increase the uptake of embodied environmental flow assessment and considerations in built asset design workflows.
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ItemTowards a multiscale framework for modeling and improving the life cycle environmental performance of built stocks(Wiley, 2022-04-01)Cities are complex sociotechnical systems, of which buildings and infrastructure assets (built stocks) constitute a critical part. As the main global users of primary energy and emitters of associated greenhouse gases, there is a need for the introduction of measures capable of enhancing the environmental performance of built stocks in cities and mitigating negative externalities such as pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. To date, most environmental modeling and assessment approaches are often fragmented across disciplines and limited in scope, failing to provide a comprehensive evaluation. These approaches tend to focus either on one scale relevant to a discipline (e.g., buildings, roads, parks) or particular environmental flows (e.g., energy, greenhouse emissions). Here, we present a framework aimed at overcoming many of these limitations. By combining life cycle assessment and dynamic modeling using a nested systems theory, this framework provides a more holistic and integrated approach for modeling and improving the environmental performance of built stocks and their occupants, including material stocks and flows, embodied, operational, and mobility-related environmental flows, as well as cost, and carbon sequestration in materials and green infrastructure. This comprehensive approach enables a very detailed parametrization that supports testing different policy scenarios at a material, element, building, and neighborhood level, and across different environmental flows. We test parts of our modeling framework on a proof-of-concept case study neighborhood in Melbourne, Australia, demonstrating its breadth. The proposed modeling framework can enable an advanced assessment of built stocks that enhances our capacity to improve the life cycle environmental performance of cities.
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ItemImproving the uptake of hybrid life cycle assessment in the construction industry(Elsevier, 2017)With building-related greenhouse gas emissions(GHGE) having more than doubled since 1970, they represent one of the largest and most attractive opportunities for climate change mitigation. However, current focus has mainly been on reducing operational GHGE leaving building embodied GHGE (i.e. the GHG emissions associated with the extraction, manufacture and transportation of materials, and the building construction process itself) largely ignored. These embodied emissions have been estimated to represent between 10% to 97% of a buildings total life cycle GHGE. It is thus critical that decision-making in relation to buildings is based on a life cycle perspective. One of the main barriers to this approach is the uncertainty surrounding the financial implications of life cycle GHGE reduction strategies. Despite project cost being a key driver for decision-making, building developers, designers and owners have insufficient knowledge or appropriate tools to adequately consider these life cycle costs and balance them against GHGE savings. Several methods exist for quantifying the costs of a building, such as life cycle costing (LCC). However, LCC and life cycle GHGE assessments are often used in isolation. This study will address the urgent need to move towards integrating these assessments by developing a framework that can be used to ascertain the important relationships and trade-offs between financial and GHGE performance of various building-related GHGE reduction strategies. This framework can be used as part of the building decision-making process and help create a low carbon, affordable built environment.
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ItemTowards an automated approach for compiling hybrid life cycle inventories(Elsevier, 2017)There is an urgent need to reduce the environmental effects associated with the built environment. While a life cycle approach is considered essential for ensuring that these effects are not simply shifted from one life cycle stage to another, not all life cycle assessment methods provide the same level of detail. Three main approaches are currently used to compile a life cycle inventory capturing data on the inputs and outputs associated with a particular good or service: process, input-output and hybrid analysis. While process analysis is recognised for its specificity, it typically involves a truncation of the system boundary. Conversely, input-output analysis is systemically complete, but aggregates data at the economic sector or commodity level. Combining these two methods in a hybrid analysis has the potential to reduce their limitations, while maintaining their benefits. However, combining process and input-output data remains a highly manual and time-consuming process. The development of an automated approach for compiling life cycle inventories is a critical step in the uptake of hybrid analysis methods. This study aims to explore automating the hybridisation of process and input-output data using the Path Exchange method. Major practical barriers that usually prevent automating the integration of process and input-output data in hybrid life cycle inventories are discussed and a case study focusing on concrete is used for the purpose of illustrating the approach.
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ItemEmbodied carbon in buildings: An Australian perspective(Springer International Publishing, 2018-01-28)
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ItemThe Australian industrial ecology virtual laboratory and multi-scale assessment of buildings and construction(Elsevier, 2018-04-01)As global population and urbanization increase, so do the direct and indirect environmental impacts of construction around the world. Low-impact products, buildings, precincts and cities are needed to mitigate the effects of building construction and use. Analysis of embodied energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across these scales is becoming more important to support this direction. The calculation of embodied impacts requires rigorous, flexible and comprehensive assessment tools. Firstly, we present the Australian Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory (IELab) as one such tool discussing its structure, function and wide scope of application. Secondly, we demonstrate its potential high level of resolution in a case study: assessing embodied GHG emissions in an aluminium-framed window by combining product-specific life-cycle inventory data. The input-output analysis at the core of the IELab is mathematically comprehensive in the assessment of direct and indirect impacts and the tool can be applied at a range of scales from building component, to precincts and cities, or to the entire construction industry. IELab uses a flexible formalism that enables consistent harmonisation of diverse datasets and tractable updating of input data. The emissions and energy database supporting IELab has detailed data, aligning with economic accounts and data on labour, water, materials and waste that enrich assessment across other dimensions of sustainability. IELab is a comprehensive, flexible and robust assessment tool well positioned to respond to the challenge of assessing and aiding the design of a low-impact built environment.
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ItemThe EPiC database: Hybrid embodied environmental flow coefficients for construction materials(ELSEVIER, 2022-05)Demand for new buildings and infrastructure continues to grow and will only increase in coming years to cater for forecast growth in global population. This demand will result in considerable strain on the natural environment, resulting from the operation of these new built assets as well as the demand for resources required to construct and maintain them. Life cycle assessment is a tool that can be used during the design or refurbishment of new or existing buildings or infrastructure projects, to assess and improve their environmental performance. A life cycle assessment is often time consuming and complex, especially when used for the analysis of entire construction projects. This is particularly true when it is used to analyse construction-related, or embodied, environmental flows (e.g. embodied greenhouse gas emissions). To simplify the process, especially with projects that have tight time or budget constraints, product-based environmental flow coefficients are often used, which provide an indication of the environmental flows associated with specific construction materials. However, existing coefficients are typically based on process data, inherent with truncated product system boundaries. This paper introduces the Environmental Performance in Construction (EPiC) Database, a comprehensive database of hybrid embodied environmental flow coefficients for construction materials in Australia. EPiC uses a hybrid life cycle inventory approach to fill the gaps that exist in process data and provide embodied environmental flow coefficients that are systemically complete. This study has shown that existing process data for materials is on average 55% incomplete, but considerable inconsistency in system boundary coverage means that this incompleteness varies from 2% to 99% across materials and environmental flows. Other key strengths of EPiC are its transparency, providing open access to all data, and methodological consistency, with coefficient data sources and methods being the same for all materials. Environmental flow coefficients from EPiC can be used on their own or integrated into existing life cycle assessment tools, informing improvements to the environmental performance of construction projects.
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ItemThe effect of data age on the assessment of a building’s embodied energy(The Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), 2020)Data used to quantify the embodied energy of a building, known as life cycle inventory (LCI) data, varies widely in temporal relevance. The energy associated with construction material production and building construction changes regularly due to improvements in manufacturing and construction processes, and energy mix and intensity. Older LCI data may not be representative of the current industry. Due to the time and costs involved in compiling LCIs, many studies rely on outdated data, yet no studies have considered the effect of data age on the analysis of a building’s embodied energy. A reliable embodied energy value is critical to ensure energy reduction efforts have been effective. This study compares the life cycle embodied energy of a typical Australian house using data from a 2010 and 2019 LCI database, compiled using an identical technique. The 2019 data lead to a 27.7% decrease in life cycle embodied energy. This reveals that the age of data may have a considerable effect on the value of a building’s embodied energy, indicating that LCI data should be regularly updated to respond to changes in manufacturing and construction processes as well as energy mix and intensity.
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ItemThe life cycle embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions of an Australian housing development: comparing 1997 and 2019 hybrid life cycle inventory data(The Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), 2020)Data used to conduct a life cycle assessment, called a life cycle inventory (LCI), is rarely scrutinised and its effects on the results of an environmental assessment is understudied. Hybrid analysis is the most comprehensive technique to compile an LCI. It combines bottom-up industrial process data and top-down macroeconomic input-output data. This study compares two hybrid LCIs of construction materials, using the same technique, developed in 1997 and 2019. This paper evaluates the effect of LCI data on the life cycle embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions of a recent housing development in Melbourne, Australia. The case study development consists of six different apartment buildings (~14,000m² gross floor area; 555 inhabitants) that have an improved environmental performance compared to business-as-usual. Results show that the 2019 LCI lead to a decrease in the life cycle embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions over 50 years, from 39.1 GJ/m² to 32.2 GJ/m² (-17.6%) and from 2,338 kgCO2e/m² to 2,218 kgCO2e/m² (-5.1%), respectively. The embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions ranking of some materials changed by up to five positions, while at the assembly level the top five assemblies did not change much. This analysis provides rare insights into the effects of hybrid LCI data on the life cycle assessment of built environment assets and implications for design.
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ItemEPiC: Introducing a database of hybrid environmental flow coefficients for construction materials(IOP Publishing, 2020-11-20)Abstract As worldwide consumption of materials continues to rise, there is growing pressure on material, energy and water resources and an increase in waste production and greenhouse gas emissions. A much more sustainable approach to the procurement of built assets is crucial to avoid exacerbating existing environmental pressures. Product and process-based environmental data is an important element in understanding how current and future built assets perform. This paper analyses environmental flow data for a range of construction materials contained within the Environmental Performance in Construction (EPiC) Database, a new, open access repository of hybrid environmental flow coefficients for construction materials. The structural paths of 131 construction materials are analysed to identify trends and contributors to embodied water, energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions coefficients. The disaggregation and analysis of material coefficients shows the complexity of the material supply chains and provides insight into the key inputs and outputs resulting from the production of construction materials.