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End-of-Life Modeling and Data in North American Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools

At the end of their service lives, building materials are either recovered (e.g., reused, recycled, incinerated) or disposed of in landfills. In life cycle assessment (LCA) terms, the environmental impacts due to material recovery or disposal are accounted for within the end-of-life (EOL) stage.

Through interviews, a survey, and a workshop, this research explores the functions that existing whole building LCA (WBLCA) tools offer to create models that can best represent EOL processes. This research further explores tool functionalities and data needs and provides recommendations and future research directions to improve EOL modeling in WBLCA tools.

Sobre

This document summarizes the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) research on end-of-life (EOL) modeling for a selection of building materials in whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA) tools conducted as part of a larger project in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Building Transparency (BT), and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). The overarching goals of the project are to:

  • Improve EOL modeling in WBLCA tools by exploring data gaps and current tool capabilities.
  • Explore opportunities for developing and testing an open-access EOL database. This can potentially enable WBLCA tools to draw from this database and better harmonize the modeling of EOL impacts.

The recommendations, limitations, and future research ideas are based on: 1) a review of EOL data and modeling functions for three North American WBLCA tools, 2) direct interviews with North American WBLCA tool providers, and 3) a survey and an online workshop with experienced WBLCA tool users.

Autores

  • Milad Ashtiani, Research Scientist
  • Jordan Palmeri, Senior Researcher
  • Kathrina Simonen, directora ejecutiva

Citación

Ashtiani, M., Palmeri, J., and Simonen, K. (2024). End of Life Modeling and Data in North American Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools. Carbon Leadership Forum, University of Washington. Seattle, WA.

Final Report

Publicado

April 2024

Derechos de autor

End life of Modeling and Data in North American Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools tiene una licencia Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Expresiones de gratitud

The research team would like to thank the REMADE Institute for funding this research. We would also like to thank our collaborators who provided valuable insights to inform this report:

  • Michael Deru, NREL
  • Naveen Kuman Muthumanickam, NREL
  • Heather Goetsch, NREL
  • Swaroop Atnoorkar, NREL
  • Vaclav Hasik, Building Transparency
  • Mirko Farnetani, SOM

Cover image from Thomas Cizauskas, © Flickr

A special thank you to these individuals for direct conversations, interviews, and feedback that informed this report:

  • Matt Bowick (Athena Sustainable Materials Institute)
  • Vaclav Hasik (Building Transparency / tallyLCA)
  • Vasilis Kalfountzos (One Click LCA)
  • Stephanie Carlisle (Carbon Leadership Forum)
  • Brad Benke (Carbon Leadership Forum)
  • Sindhu Raju (Carbon Leadership Forum) – formatted report

Workshop Participants

We would also like to thank the survey and workshop participants for their participation. While their input informed this publication, inclusion of their names does not indicate agreement with all aspects of the publication and inclusion of their employer’s name is for informational purposes only and does not represent an endorsement of the publication.

  • Anthony Pak (Priota)
  • Aurora Jensen (Brightworks)
  • Brie McCarthy (Miller Hull)
  • Chris Flint Chatto (ZGF)
  • David Moore (Atlelier 10)
  • Duncan Cox (Thornton Tomasetti)
  • Efrie Escott (Schieder Electric)
  • Frances Yang (Arup)
  • Jack Rusk (EHDD)
  • Jeremy Field (Introba)
  • Jesce Walz (Perkins Will)
  • Jessica Martinez (DCI Engineers)
  • Jessie Templeton (Brightworks)
  • Jordan Palmeri (Carbon Leadership Forum)
  • Justin Schwartzhoff (LMN Architects)
  • Kathryn Peretti (US Dept of Energy)
  • Katie Felver (Mahlum Architects)
  • Kjell Anderson (LMN Architects)
  • Laura Karnath (Walter P Moore)
  • Lindsey Kahler (SERA)
  • Mandi Wesley (Mantle Development)
  • Mel Chafart (Carbon Leadership Forum)
  • Melissa Kelly (Gensler)
  • Michael Deru (NREL)
  • Milad Ashtiani (Carbon Leadership Forum)
  • Mirko Farnetani (SOM)
  • Naveen Muthumanickam (NREL)
  • Ryan Welch (Kieran Timberlake)
  • Swaroop Atnoorkar (NREL)
  • Vaclav Hasik (Building Transparency)
  • Varusha Venkatraj (Brightworks)

Biblioteca de recursos

Reclaimed and Reused: Recommended LCA Modeling Guidance to Support EPDs for Reused Construction Materials

Material reuse is one strategy for reducing the embodied carbon of construction. While the preparation of previously used materials for reuse has an environmental impact, it avoids many of the resource extraction and manufacturing impacts of building with newly manufactured products. Given the amount of demolition and deconstruction across North America (and beyond), there is a vast potential for material reuse to expand in scale. However, barriers to material reuse scaling exist.

DEQ Low Embodied Carbon Housing Program: Roadmap to Success

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States, a collaboration between the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), RMI, and the University of Washington (UW) Life Cycle Lab, provides an assessment of embodied carbon from US construction materials and explores pathways to align with a 1.5°C global warming limit.

International Embodied Carbon Data Availability: A Review of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Availability in Europe, China, and Australia

CLF completed a landscape analysis of product-level embodied carbon data availability in regions outside North America with the goals of: (i) understanding how LCA/EPD data availability varies globally; (ii) informing where targeted initiatives are needed to increase the availability of data; and (iii) determining whether adequate EPD data exists to develop CLF Material Baselines outside North America. This report summarizes our findings and provides initial insights into what data is available to inform low-carbon procurement efforts in Australia, China, and Europe.

The CLF Benchmark Explorer

Emissions from the operations of buildings and infrastructure are significant, well-understood contributors to national and global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the contribution of embodied carbon—emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials across the life cycle of a building or asset—is neglected by comparison. Even at the global level, embodied carbon estimates are typically based on manufacturing emissions from the production of a handful of the highest-impact materials (e.g. concrete, steel, aluminum, and wood).

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States, a collaboration between the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), RMI, and the University of Washington (UW) Life Cycle Lab, provides an assessment of embodied carbon from US construction materials and explores pathways to align with a 1.5°C global warming limit.

Washington State Carbon Emissions Estimation: 2025 – 2050

Emissions from the operations of buildings and infrastructure are significant, well-understood contributors to national and global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the contribution of embodied carbon—emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials across the life cycle of a building or asset—is neglected by comparison. Even at the global level, embodied carbon estimates are typically based on manufacturing emissions from the production of a handful of the highest-impact materials (e.g. concrete, steel, aluminum, and wood).

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