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Recently, there has been a shift toward the embodied energy assessment of buildings. However, the impact of material service life on the life-cycle embodied energy has received little attention. We aimed to address this knowledge gap, particularly in the context of the UAE and investigated the embodied energy associated with the use of concrete and other materials commonly used in residential buildings in the hot desert climate of the UAE.

Using input–output based hybrid analysis, we quantified the life-cycle embodied energy of a villa in the UAE with over 50 years of building life using the average, minimum, and maximum material service life values. Mathematical calculations were performed using MS Excel, and a detailed bill of quantities with >170 building materials and components of the villa were used for investigation.

For the base case, the initial embodied energy was 57% (7390.5 GJ), whereas the recurrent embodied energy was 43% (5,690 GJ) of the life-cycle embodied energy based on average material service life values. The proportion of the recurrent embodied energy with minimum material service life values was increased to 68% of the life-cycle embodied energy, while it dropped to 15% with maximum material service life values.

The findings provide new data to guide building construction in the UAE and show that recurrent embodied energy contributes significantly to life-cycle energy demand. Further, the study of material service life variations provides deeper insights into future building material specifications and management considerations for building maintenance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the sustainability conditions of primary schools in Turkey within the scope of the life cycle assessment (LCA). It is aimed to develop optimum alternatives to reduce the environmental impact of primary schools and reach environmental sustainability targets of the sustainable development goals in Turkey.

From the construction project of 103 buildings located in Istanbul, 10 case buildings with various typical plans were chosen for analysis. The results regarding their life cycle energy and carbon emission for material production, operation and maintenance stages were calculated for a lifespan of 50 years. Results were evaluated and compared within the scope of environmental sustainability. Optimum alternatives for improving the environmental sustainability and performances of selected case buildings’ facades were developed, and the life cycle energy and carbon emission for proposed conditions were calculated. The obtained results were evaluated for current and proposed conditions.

Results showed that reinforced concrete material contributes the most to the life cycle-embodied energy and CO₂ emission of buildings. Cooling load increases the life cycle operational energy (LCOE) and CO₂ emission of buildings. Using high-performance glazing significantly reduces LCOE and CO₂ emission. Recycled and fiber-based materials have significant potential for reducing life cycle-embodied energy and CO₂ emission.

This study has been developed in response to achieving sustainable development targets on public buildings in Turkey. In this regard, external walls of primary schools were analyzed within the scope of LCA and recommendations were made to contribute to the policies and regulations requested by the Government of Turkey. This study proves that alternative and novel materials have great potential for achieving sustainable public buildings. The study answers to questions about reducing the environmental impact of primary school buildings by using LCA approach with a holistic point of view.

The recurrent embodied energy (REE) is the energy consumed in the maintenance, replacement and retrofit processes of a facility. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the relationship of REE with the service life and life cycle embodied energy. The amount of variation in the reported REE values is also determined and discussed.

A qualitative approach that is known as the literature based discovery (LBD) was adopted. Existing literature was surveyed to gather case studies and to analyze the reported values of REE.

The reported values of REE showed considerable variation across referred studies. It was also found that the reported REE values demonstrated a moderate positive correlation with the service life but a very strong positive correlation with the life cycle embodied energy of both the residential and commercial facilities.

This review paper pointed out the importance of the maintenance and replacement processes in reducing the life cycle energy use in a facility. Future research could focus on performing case studies to evaluate this relationship.

The findings highlight the significance of REE in reducing the life cycle energy impacts of a facility. As facility managers routinely deal with maintenance and replacement processes, they hold an important responsibility of reducing the life cycle energy.

The findings of the paper would motivate the facilities management professionals to prefer long service life materials and components during the postconstruction phases of a built facility.

This paper aims to consider the embodied energy of building materials in the context of greenhouse gas emission mitigation strategies. Previous practice and research are highlighted where they have the potential to influence design decisions. Latest embodied energy figures are indicated, and the implications of applying these figures to whole buildings are discussed. Several practical examples are given to aid building designers in the selection of building materials for reduced overall life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.

The expected operational lifespan of modern buildings has become disturbingly short as buildings are replaced for reasons of changing cultural expectations, style, serviceability, locational obsolescence and economic viability. The same buildings, however, are not always physically or structurally obsolete; the materials and components within them are very often still serviceable. While there is some recycling of selected construction materials, such as steel and concrete, this is almost always in the form of down cycling or reprocessing. One significant impediment to reuse is that buildings are not designed in a way that facilitates easy recovery of materials and components. This chapter explores the potential for the recovery of materials and components if buildings were designed for such future recovery, utilizing the strategy of design for disassembly. As well as assessing material waste, this chapter presents research into the analysis of the embodied energy in buildings, highlighting its significance in comparison with operational energy. Analysis at material, component and whole-of-building levels shows the potential benefits of strategically designing buildings for future disassembly to recover this embodied energy. Careful consideration at the early design stage can result in the deconstruction of significant portions of buildings and the recovery of their potential through higher order reuse and upcycling.

Crucial transition of the Indian residential building sector into a low-emission economy require an in-depth understanding of the potentials for retrofitting the existing building stock. There are, however, limited studies that have recognised the interdependencies and trade-offs in the embodied energy and life cycle impact assessment of retrofit interventions. This research appraises the life cycle assessment and embodied energy output of a residential building in India to assess the environmental implications of selected retrofit scenarios.

This study utilises a single case study building project in South India to assess the effectiveness and impact of three retrofit scenarios based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and embodied energy (EE) estimates. The LCA was conducted using SimaPro version 9.3 and with background data from Ecoinvent database version 3.81. The EE estimates were calculated using material coefficients from relevant databases in the published literature. Monte Carlo Simulation is then used to allow for uncertainties in the estimates for the scenarios.

The three key findings that materialized from the study are as follows: (1) the retrofitting of Indian residential buildings could achieve up to 20% reduction in the life cycle energy emissions, (2) the modification of the building envelope and upgrading of the building service systems could suffice in providing optimum operational energy savings, if the electricity from the grid is sourced from renewable plants, and (3) the production of LEDs and other building services systems has the highest environmental impacts across a suite of LCA indicators.

The retrofitting of residential buildings in India will lead to better and improved opportunities to meet the commitments in the Paris Climate Change Agreement and will lead to enhanced savings for building owners.

Embodied energy is the total amount of energy required to produce a product, and is significant because it occurs immediately and can be equal over the life cycle of a building to the transient requirements for operational energy. Methods for embodied energy analysis include process analysis, input‐output analysis and hybrid analysis. Proposes to improve the reliability of estimating embodied energy based on input‐output models by using an algorithm to extract systematically the most important energy paths for the “other construction” sector from an Australian input‐output model. Demonstrates the application of these energy paths to the embodied energy analysis of an individual commercial building, highlighting improvements in reliability due to the modification of energy paths with process analysis data. Compares materials and elements for the building, and estimates likely ranges of error.

This paper proposes an intact framework for building life cycle energy estimation (LCEE), which includes three major energy sources: embodied, operational and mobile.

A systematic review is conducted to summarize the selected 109 studies published during 2012–2021 related to quantifying building energy consumption and its major estimation methodologies, tools and key influence parameters of three energy sources.

Results show that the method limitations and the variety of potential parameters lead to significant energy estimation errors. An in-depth qualitative discussion is conducted to identify research knowledge gaps and future directions.

With societies and economies developing rapidly across the world, a large amount of energy is consumed at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, its huge environmental impacts have forced many countries to take energy issues as urgent social problems to be solved. Even though the construction industry, as the one of most important carbon contributors, has been constantly and academically active, researchers still have not arrived at a clear consensus for system boundaries of life cycle energy. Besides, there is a significant difference between the actual and estimated values in countless current and advanced energy estimation approaches in the literature.

Energy used in buildings is a major contributor to Australia’s energy consumption and associated environmental impacts. The advent of complex glazing systems such as double glazing, particularly in northern America and Europe, has partially closed a weak thermal link in the building envelope. In milder climates, however, building envelope features may not be as effective in life cycle energy terms, i.e. including the embodied energy of their manufacture. A net energy analysis compares the savings in operational energy to the additional requirements for embodied energy, in terms of the energy payback period and energy return on investment. The effectiveness of double glazing is determined for an Australian residential building. A wide range of building operation regimes was simulated. These results support the principle of installing double glazing in residential buildings in Melbourne, Australia, at least in terms of net primary energy savings.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of a life cycle approach in facilities management practices to reduce the carbon footprint of built facilities. A model to holistic life cycle energy and carbon reduction is also proposed.

A literature-based discovery approach was applied to collect, analyze and synthesize the results of published case studies from around the globe. The energy use results of 95 published case studies were analyzed to derive conclusions.

A comparison of energy-efficient and conventional facilities revealed that decreasing operating energy may increase the embodied energy components. Additionally, the analysis of 95 commercial buildings indicated that nearly 10 per cent of the total US carbon emissions was influenced by facilities management practices.

The results were derived from case studies that belonged to various locations across the globe and included facilities constructed with a variety of materials.

The proposed approach to holistic carbon footprint reduction can guide facility management research and practice to make meaningful contributions to the efforts for creating a sustainable built environment.

This paper quantifies the extent to which a facilities management professional can contribute to the global efforts of reducing carbon emission.