Analysis of the transition effects of building codes and regulations on the emergence of a low carbon residential building sector

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. It is now established that energy use in buildings is a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions and that abatement by the building sector can provide significant social, economic and environmental benefits. This paper examines the application of socio-technical transition theory to the building sector with Australian energy policy as a case study. The relatively high level of local building construction offers significant opportunities for market transition with appropriate policy settings so this national case has international implications. Evolution of building energy efficiency standards through the Australian National Construction Code is scrutinized by benchmarking the building energy code against international best practice. The benchmarking underscores the contribution high performance energy efficient buildings could make to a low carbon transition with appropriate policy settings. Specifically government intervention in the building sector through direct regulation was shown to have substantial potential to effect this transition. Nevertheless, such intervention has proven to be politically controversial in Australia. The paper provides a twofold contribution to research in the domain of building energy policy. Firstly, by making the connection between transition theory and the role of building energy codes; secondly, by demonstrating the practical application and utility of a structured building code benchmarking process

Building lifespan: effect on the environmental impact of building components in a Danish perspective

Construction professionals must now integrate environmental concerns with life cycle assessment (LCA) early in the procurement process. Building lifespan is important to LCA, since results must be normalized on an annualized basis for comparison. However, the scientific literature shows that issues of building lifespan are inadequately addressed. The aim of this research is therefore to explore how environmental impact from building components is affected by building lifespans of 50, 80, 100 and 120 years in a Danish context. LCAs are undertaken for 792 parametric variations of typical construction solutions, covering all primary building components and based on contemporary practice. A full statistical analysis is carried out, which shows a significant statistical correlation between changes in building lifespan and environmental impact for all primary building components, except windows/rooflights. On average, a building lifespan of 80 years reduces environmental impact by 29%, 100 years by 38%, and 120 years by 44%, all in relation to a lifespan of 50 years. The results show that if construction professionals and policy-makers use short building lifespans, then resource allocation to reduce environmental impact during procurement may become disproportionately focused on the construction contra operational phases of the lifecycle

Building lifespan: effect on the environmental impact of building components in a Danish perspective

Construction professionals must now integrate environmental concerns with life cycle assessment (LCA) early in the procurement process. Building lifespan is important to LCA, since results must be normalized on an annualized basis for comparison. However, the scientific literature shows that issues of building lifespan are inadequately addressed. The aim of this research is therefore to explore how environmental impact from building components is affected by building lifespans of 50, 80, 100 and 120 years in a Danish context. LCAs are undertaken for 792 parametric variations of typical construction solutions, covering all primary building components and based on contemporary practice. A full statistical analysis is carried out, which shows a significant statistical correlation between changes in building lifespan and environmental impact for all primary building components, except windows/rooflights. On average, a building lifespan of 80 years reduces environmental impact by 29%, 100 years by 38%, and 120 years by 44%, all in relation to a lifespan of 50 years. The results show that if construction professionals and policy-makers use short building lifespans, then resource allocation to reduce environmental impact during procurement may become disproportionately focused on the construction contra operational phases of the lifecycle

How building design and technologies influence heat-related habits

The discrepancy between calculated heat demand and measured heat consumption – the performance gap – suggests that the energy efficiency of houses affects the energy-consuming habits of its occupants. This coincides with the theories of practice describing how materiality affects practices through reconfiguring practical understandings, e.g. comfort expectations. Heat-related habits are investigated in the paper across material contexts, e.g. building characteristics and technologies. Evidence based on a combined questionnaire survey and administrative data on occupants (n = 1216) living in single-family detached houses in Denmark shows that the practices of adjusting thermostats and the amount of clothing worn indoors as well as perceived indoor temperature correlate with building characteristics, e.g. energy efficiency of the building envelope and technical installations. These correlations are moderated by the socio-demographic characteristics of occupants. However, building characteristics are found to be less influential on the frequency of opening windows. The results indicate that occupants dress warmer and keep lower temperatures in energy-inefficient houses. This suggests that material arrangements have a significant influence on occupant expectations and practices, which lead to increased indoor temperatures and energy demand. A challenge for building regulations will be to account for how energy efficient house characteristics and technologies adversely affect occupants’ energy-consuming behaviour

LCA profiles for building components: strategies for the early design process

Construction professionals are required to integrate environmental concerns in the earliest design phases. However, environmental assessments need large amounts of precise data that are typically not available in the early design process, as most variables are still fluid. To address this concern, a new approach explores how environmental information on building components can be simplified for strategic use early in the design process in a Danish context. In this paper, life cycle assessments (LCAs) are undertaken for several hundred typical external wall solutions, based on relevant standards. A full bivariate linear regression analysis is performed, showing statistically significant correlations with strong direct relationships between environmental impact categories. A simplified LCA profile consisting of total primary energy, global warming potential and acidification potential is developed. This simplified LCA profile presents environmental data in a more understandable way, creating a strategic overview that can be easily used by non-technical clients and construction professionals in the early design stages. This has a scientific and statistical validity generated by environmental assessment standards, and creates a parallel between the precision of the approach and its time of use in the design process

Achieving quality through statistical prediction for building services systems

The application of prediction theories has been widely practised for many years in many industries such as manufacturing, defence and aerospace. Although these theories are not new, their application has not been widely used within the building services industry. Collectively, the building services industry should take a deeper look at these approaches in comparison with the traditional deterministic approaches currently being practised. By extending the application into this industry, this paper seeks to provide the industry with an overview of how simplified stochastic modelling coupled with availability and reliability predictions using historical data compiled from various sources could enhance the quality of building services systems

How building design and technologies influence heat-related habits

The discrepancy between calculated heat demand and measured heat consumption – the performance gap – suggests that the energy efficiency of houses affects the energy-consuming habits of its occupants. This coincides with the theories of practice describing how materiality affects practices through reconfiguring practical understandings, e.g. comfort expectations. Heat-related habits are investigated in the paper across material contexts, e.g. building characteristics and technologies. Evidence based on a combined questionnaire survey and administrative data on occupants (n = 1216) living in single-family detached houses in Denmark shows that the practices of adjusting thermostats and the amount of clothing worn indoors as well as perceived indoor temperature correlate with building characteristics, e.g. energy efficiency of the building envelope and technical installations. These correlations are moderated by the socio-demographic characteristics of occupants. However, building characteristics are found to be less influential on the frequency of opening windows. The results indicate that occupants dress warmer and keep lower temperatures in energy-inefficient houses. This suggests that material arrangements have a significant influence on occupant expectations and practices, which lead to increased indoor temperatures and energy demand. A challenge for building regulations will be to account for how energy efficient house characteristics and technologies adversely affect occupants’ energy-consuming behaviour

Low- carbon design strategies for new residential buildings – lessons from architectural practice

This study presents the environmental life cycle assessment of four low carbon design strategies applied in Danish, architectural practice. The subject of analysis is a set of five buildings erected within the same constrictions in terms of floor area, energy performance and construction costs. The tested design strategies were: use of recycled materials, design for extended durability of components, adaptable design, and design for reduction of operational energy demand. The results of the five buildings are compared with a reference building (i.e. a typical, Danish single-family dwelling). Results show that the recycling/upcycling strategy is the most effective in reducing the embodied carbon. The use of structural wood in the same design furthermore points to the use of wood as a viable low-carbon strategy. In combination, these two strategies result in an approximate 40% saving of life cycle embodied carbon compared to the reference. Using durable materials yields up to 30% lower embodied carbon compared to the reference, whereas a design for adaptability results in 17% lower embodied carbon. However, these results are sensitive to the scenarios made for the service lives of materials and the implemented disassembly solutions. In a life cycle carbon perspective, the emissions from energy use prove to be of importance, although depending on the modelling approaches of the energy mix. With the shrinking, global carbon budgets in mind, there is justified reason to holistically optimize the design of new buildings by integrating various design aspects addressing the whole life cycle of the building

Building design and construction strategies for a circular economy

The considerable environmental impacts, resource consumption and waste generation emanating from buildings are a cause of great concern and political attention. Interest in the circular economy (CE) concept of slowing, narrowing and closing material loops through CE strategies (reuse, repair, refurbish, recycle and recover) has grown in recent years to facilitate minimising these unresolved issues emanating from the building industry. Although CE initiatives are proliferating within the industry, wide-scale adoption of CE is still lacking, and the current development and implementation of CE building design and construction strategies is fragmented. Through a systematic literature review (SLR), this study assesses which design and construction strategies are being linked to the concept of CE for new buildings, and their level of application and readiness in a building context. On this basis, the study offers insight into how this field of research is developing and provides directions for future research. From the SLR, a taxonomy is presented that groups the strategies together into 16 overarching building design and construction strategies. An important gap preventing a greater CE uptake within the industry was found to include the lack of knowledge about the environmental performance and related benefits of the various building design and construction strategies. Thus, it is suggested that conveying more comprehensive and uniform adoption of CE in the building industry requires the development of a new design typology to facilitate CE-oriented decision-making in a building context and that prioritises the strategies according to their potential in terms of minimising building-related environmental impacts