Life cycle assessment (LCA) of sustainable building materials: An overview

The construction industry is one of the largest exploiters of both renewable and non-renewable natural resources. It was inevitable that it would find itself at the centre of concerns regarding environmental impact. The process and operation of building construction consumes a great deal of materials throughout its service life cycle. The selection and use of sustainable building materials play an important role in the design and construction of green building. This chapter sets out to present an overview of sustainable building materials and their impacts on the environment. It also discusses the life cycle assessment as a methodological principle and framework, and its limitations for the analysis of sustainable building materials. © 2014 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved

Intergrated evaluation system for thermal insulation solutions with emphasis on reuse and recycling potential

The PhD thesis aims at the formulation of an integrated Decision Support System (DSS) for the assessment of thermal insulation solutions during their life-cycle, placing special emphasis on their reuse and recycling potential. The suggested DSS comprises three main assessment factors, namely energy consumption, the environmental impact and the financial cost, each and every part of which is analytically assessed during the four distinct stages of the life cycle of a thermal insulation solution. These stages consist of the construction, the operation, the demolition and the end of life management. The calculation of the aforementioned features takes place using analytical algorithms that have been formulated in the context of the dissertation. These algorithms have been developed in such a way that, depending on the desired outcome, they can be used, either autonomously or in a joint fashion. The connection of the algorithms that have been formulated, combined together with the integration of the databases which were created, and which contain data that stem from the Greek industrial and construction sector, have led to the development of an integrated, holistic decision-making support tool. It can be used, either as a complete set, or as distinct subsets, by a plethora of users, like architects, engineers, developers, demolition firms, public authorities, etc., pursuing their respective aims. Using the tool, it becomes feasible to pursue, and optimize in a parametrical sense, the end of life management of thermal insulation solutions, but also, working in the opposite direction, to select, during the design phase of a new building, the optimal thermal insulation solution for each building element, taking into account environmental, economic and energy criteria