Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and verification, and references. The summary of EPD contains the results
of the LCa. The example of tabular overview of category indicators in
summary is given from the EPD for structural steel, manufacturer CELSa
Barcelona, Table 3.12 (iBU, 2011). The values of indicators in Table 3.12
are calculated per 1 kg of structural steel. in the end-of-life phase, 88%
recycling, 11% reuse and 1% loss are assumed.
as another example, the part of the EPD for Portland cement (CEM
i) issued by the European Cement association in 2008 is given in Table
3.13 (CEMBUrEaU, 2008). it was developed as business-to-business
communication tool with the prime intention to provide measurable and
verifiable input for the environmental assessment of construction works.
The functional unit is 1000 kg of cement.
3.5.3 LCA tools and rating systems
LCa tools are software designed for calculation of the environmental impacts
of products and services based on LCa methodology. The most recognized
and sophisticated LCa tools are listed in Table 3.1. Some of these tools are
general and therefore can be used for the environmental assessment of various
types of construction works (SimaPro, Gabi, TEaM, Umberto). Besides them,
there are tools developed specifically for buildings and building products,
such as athena, BEES, Eco-Quantum, Envest, EQUEr.
The application of LCa in the environmental assessment of buildings and
other construction works is a very complex task as a construction incorporates
Table 3.12
Category indicators in an AUB EPD (CELSA Barcelona) for
structural steel (IBU, 2011)
Structural steel: sections, rebars and marchant bars
Indicator
Unit per kg
Production
End-of-life
Total
Primary energy,
non-renewable
(MJ)
11.26
0.26
11.52
Primary energy,
renewable
(MJ)
1.09
-0.15
0.94
Global warming
potential (GWP)
(kg CO
2
-eq.)
0.68
0.10
0.76
Ozone depletion
potential (ODP)
(kg CFC-11-eq.)
7.68E-08
-1.26E-08
6.60E-08
Acidification
potential (AP)
(kg SO
2
-eq.)
4.22E-03
4.97E-05
4.27E-03
(kg PO
4
3-
-eq.)
Eutrophication
potential (EP)
2.56E-04
-6.82E-06
2.49E-04
Photochemical
oxidant creation
potential (POCP)
(kg C
2
H
4
-eq.)
2.95E-04
5.73E-05
3.52E-04
