9/19/2013

AR517GSustainableArchitecture

AnnouncementsandInformation
1. Submission of Ecological footprint due today 2. Make a team for Assessment of Sustainability

ODD Semester 2013 DCR University of Science & Technology Dept. of Architecture

Recapfromthepreviousclass
Energyandbuildings:Embodiedand operationalenergy IsConcretegreenmaterial? IsSteel S lgreenmaterial? i l? Whatisgreenmaterial? Twoextremeapproaches:Incasuspension bridgevs.Romanarchbridge

Sustainabilitydefinitionsstartwiththe
Dictionary(Collins,2ndEd1986)Sustainability
Sustain: to maintain or prolong to support physically to provide or give support to -esp. by providing necessities Sustenance: means of sustaining health or life: nourishment means of maintenance; livelihood

This is beginning to give us the idea...

Sustainabledevelopmentaimsto balancethreeelements:
Economic:whatthingscost andhowtomakea businessoutofproviding infrastructure,goodsor services Environmental:what impactthosethingshave onnatureandtheearths supportsystems which arefinite Social:howthosethings servetheneedsand qualityoflifeofpeople andtheircommunities
Technologyisneithergoodnorbadinitself howwechoosetoapplyit determines whetheragoodbalanceisachieved.

TheEnvironmentalDimensionwithin SustainableDevelopment
Environmental:what impactprojectsand productshaveonnature andtheearthssupport systems whicharefinite Theneedtoprotectthe environmenthasbecome accepted almostthe establishmentview Butthehardpartisan addictiontogrowthona finiteplanet

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Summary
Threeelementsofsustainabledevelopment: environment,whichnurturessociety,which inventedtheeconomy Thesocialandenvironmentaldimensionsmust bebalancedwitheconomics TheWorld3 model,andwhatisenough?Do weneedlessmaterialconsumptiontoavoid collapse? Challengestochangeandwhatisthearchitects roleinthisleader,orfollower?

WhatisaSustainableSystem?
In humans systems it relates to the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, , economic, and social dimensions. Includes the concept of stewardship, the responsible planning and management of resources. Aesthetics???

Sustainabledevelopmenthas2widely agreedupondefinitions
Brundtland: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Our Common Future, 1987

Whatissustainablebuiltenvironment?
The definition of a sustainable built environment is changing rapidly. While aiming for neutral or reduced p in terms of energy, gy, environmental impacts carbon, waste or water are worthwhile targets, it is becoming clear that the built environment must go beyond this. Built environment must have net positive environmental benefits for the living world.

BALANCE: economic, social, environmental aspects

BuildingsareNotPermanent
Stonepinnaclesof cathedralsare replaced~200years Buildingsarewaste intransit

GoalsofStructuralDesign
Efficiency Economy Elegance Butallmustconsiderthe environmentalimpactas well

The Tower and the Bridge: The New Art of Structural Engineering, by D.P. Billington

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19th CenturyDesignConcern
EFFICIENCYISIMPORTANT:Newmaterialsin construction,suchaswroughtironandsteel, leadtogreaterconcernforefficiency

20th CenturyDesignConcern
MAINTENANCE IS IMPORTANT: The initial design is important, though we must also design for maintenance throughout operating life

21st CenturyDesignConcern
ENDOFLIFEISIMPORTANT:Wastefromthe constructionindustryisavastconsumerof naturalresourcesonaglobalscale

DesignMatters

19th Century:Efficientuseofmaterials 20th Century:Maintenancematters 21st Century:Endoflifematters

DesigningforMaintenance
Developamaintenanceplanforyour structure Design i componentswhich hi hareaccessible ibl and d replaceable Avoidtoxicmaterialswhicharehazardousfor futuremaintenanceoperations

Architectsandengineersaretheoneswho deliverthingstopeople
Wecanonlygetthere...ifthekeyprofessionalswho deliverthingstopeoplearefullyengaged...[architects andengineers],notthepoliticians,aretheoneswhocan ensurethatsustainabledevelopment:
isoperational ismadetoworkforpeople deliversnewwaysofinvestinginourinfrastructure,newways ofgeneratingenergyandprovidingabuiltenvironment deliversnewwaysofusingconsumerdurables.

Thereisnopointalongthesustainabledevelopment journeyatwhichanengineerwillnotbeinvolved. (addresstoRoyalAcademyofEngineering, UK,June2001)

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Whatrolecanarchitectsplayin sustainabledevelopment?

Whatrolecanarchitectsplayin sustainabledevelopment?

Sustainabledesignisgooddesign
Globalresponsibilityofarchitectsand engineers

DesignQuestionstoConsider
Inchoosingstructuralsystem(s):
Flexibilityofplan? Canyourbuildingbeadaptedforalternative layouts? Isthestructuralsystemeconomical? Doesitutilizelocalexpertise? Howdoesthesystemhelpwithnaturallighting, naturalventilation,orthermalperformance?

DesignQuestionstoConsider
Inchoosingmaterials:
Whatisthesourceforthematerials? Whathappensattheendoflifeofthematerials? Do Dothematerialscontributetoyourotherdesign goals?(transparency,thermalmass,etc.)

Conclusion
Inchoosingastructuralsystemandthe materialsforabuilding,consider: 1. CONSTRUCTION 2 OPERATION 2. O O 3. DEMOLITION

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Conclusions
Eachmaterialhasenvironmentaladvantages anddisadvantages:gooddesignislocal Recycleorreusematerialstodecreasewaste Consider C id end dof flife lif in i the h initial i i i ldesign d i Historysuggestssustainablesolutions: Inka structures(temporary)andRomanstructures (permanent)canbothbesustainable

Conclusions
Constructionindustrygeneratesenormous wasteannually Individualdesignerscanreducethiswaste significantly Energyintensivematerialslikesteeland concretecanbeusedmoreefficiently Alternativematerialsshouldbeexplored

TheStructureoftheFuture?
Efficient:Materialsare recycled,reusable,or lowenergy Maintainable: componentscanbe replacedorimproved orreused Adaptable:Can respondtochanging needsandloads throughoutitslifetime Traversina foot Bridge, Jorg Conzett

JapanesePavilion,Germany,2000
Recycledpapertubes Minimalfoundations Recycledatendof the h Expo

Stansted AirportTerminal
Steeltubescanbe disassembled Modularsystemfor adaptation Canberecycledor reusedatendoflife

Beddington ZeroEnergyDevelopment (BedZed),UK,2001

Must consider site and building orientation to optimize daylight, ventilation, thermal insulation, etc. www.bedzed.org.uk

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Oryoucouldtreatarchitectureas sculpture

Theearthisfinite. naturalresourceshavealimitfinite

Considerationofsiteandbuildingorientation tooptimizedaylight,ventilation,thermal insulation,etc.???

AssessmentMeasures
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6 6. Malcolm Wells checklist (wilderness based)-Ruby+Swati Ecological Foot printing-Ruby+Swati Ove Arup SPeAR-Kriti+Ishani Life Cycle Assessment, ISO 14040/14044-Himanshi+Megha LEED-Neha+Bhawna BREEM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method)-Ankita2 7. CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency) Japan- Akshita+Abhilasha 8. GREEN STAR (Green Building Council Australia) Preeti+Sahil 9. DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council)Richa+Amisha 10. Passivehaus standard-Uttra+Kritika 11. Embodied Energy-Laveena+Aditi 12. GRIHA-Kapil + Neeraj

EcologicalFootprint
The area of land and water needed to sustain a person or population (including home, places of work and play, materials needed to build and maintain these places, vehicles and transportation systems, food, waste treatment, etc.) Somecriticisms
Focuses only environment Ignoresmultiplelanduses downplayspopulationissues

Widelyused

FirstAssignment:EcologicalFootprintQuiz
www.myfootprint.org (Earth Day 2002)

ImagecourtesyofKoberKmmerly+FreyMedia AG. Take the quiz. If time, explore sensitivity. Well discuss in class next week.

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LEEDGreenBuildingRatingSystem
Supported by the Indian (US) Green Building Council Consensus-based rating system, crafted by professionals in the building profession Originally geared towards new (office space) construction, but now piloting modified rating schemes for homes, commercial interiors, renovations, and neighborhood development Building that participate in the rating system attain Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum status based on points earned

LEEDCategories

LEEDCriticism
Benefits
Raises consciousness of owners Encourages integrated design des g Facilitates discussions about the benefit of environmentally preferable building design strategies Easily navigated; accessible to all building professionals Constantly re-examined and updated

Limitations
Equivalent point values are given to non-equivalent design strategies and improvements Often Oft reduced d d to t a point i t optimization process Evaluation mechanisms are often overly simplified and therefore misleading Can only gain points for doing good, never lose points for inflicting harm

Anintroductiontobasicprinciples

LIFECYCLEASSESSMENT

LifeCycleAssessmentWhatisit?
Life cycle assessment is the process of evaluating the total effects that a product has on the environment over its entire existence starting with its production and continuing through to its eventual disposal. It is fundamentally a decision-making tool.

LifeCycleAssessmentWhatisit?
It accounts the energy and resource inputs, as well as the polluting outputs to land, water and air that result from the production of a product. It is an extremely complex environmental assessment tool that requires massive amounts of data which are p to p purchase. often hard to find or expensive It is still a method in progress:
There is no single method for conducting LCA studies. Organizations should have flexibility to implement LCA practically as established in this International Standard, based upon the specific application and the requirements of the user. (ISO 14040:1997)

Image from: Svenska Mineral

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GoalDefinitionandScope
Whatisbeingstudied? Whoistheintendedaudience? Whatisthefunctionalunittobeexamined? Whatarethedatarequirements? Arethereanypotentiallycriticalassumptions tobemade?

Whatisbeingstudiedandforwhom?
LCAscanbeusedprivately,asadesigntoolwithin productdevelopment.
comparativeanditerative quick quickanddirty dirty

Establishingthefunctionalunit
The functional unit is the comparison criterion or metric used in LCA
It is a comparison of product functions instead of product types or brands. It often includes some indication of time.

LCAscanbepublishedforthepurposesofeco labeling.
attemptatabsoluteclassification(itisactuallya comparativeassessmentwithinalargerfield) requirebetterdataqualityandprecisecalculations

Life Cycle Assessment relies on wellformulated functional units to establish sensible comparative baselines against which to compare various product or project alternatives.

Dataqualityrequirements
Timerelatedcoverage Geographicalcoverage Technologicalcoverage Precision,completenessand representativeness Consistency Clearlystatedsourcesandfactorsof uncertainty
Location

Criticalassumptions
Isthedatalocal,regional,worldwide?

Transportmechanism
Arematerialsbeingtransportedbytruck,ship,rail, air? Howfararematerialsbeingtransported?

Equipmentefficiency
Isthedatabasedonstateoftheartequipmentor averageperformingequipment?

Levelsofaggregationofdata

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ConstructingaProcessFlowChart
Helpsidentifyscopeofinvestigation
Locatescriticalprocesses Locateshiddenflows

GypsumProductionFlowChart

ConstructingaProcessFlowChart
Helpsidentifyscopeofinvestigation
Locatescriticalprocesses Locateshiddenflows

H Helps l id identify tif nature t and damount tof fdata d t required

WastewaterTreatmentFacility Diagram

ConstructingaProcessFlowChart
Helpsidentifyscopeofinvestigation
Locatescriticalprocesses Locateshiddenflows

H Helps l id identify tif nature t and damount tof fdata d t requiredintheassessment Helpsidentifylogicalsystemboundaries

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Assigningprojectboundaries
In principle, the analysis boundaries should include all resource extractions and environmental emissions related to a product.
Practically, the boundaries of an analysis cannot capture the complete picture.

CollectingandProcessingData
Thisisthemosttimeandeffortintensive portionofanLCA. Allocationproceduresmustbeestablished whenlookingatsystemsthathavemultiple productflows. Thecalculationofenergyflowsandresulting extractionsandemissionsmusttakeinto accountthedifferentfuelsused.

DataSources
Eco-invent Database
Fees Extensive European data on full range of building products, energy production, transport, etc. Data manipulated within the SimaProuser interface Franklin database (US equivalent) currently under development

Athena CMI
Fees Canadian data with good range of building products The Athena Institute also provides a user interface for evaluation of data

BEES (NIST)
Free North American data on a small handful of building products Verylimited in scope

EIOLCA (Carnegie Mellon)

Free Highly aggregated North American data Limited in scope, breadth, and transparency of output data

Classification
Classification categories Abiotic depletion
result of extraction of non-renewable raw materials

Characterization
Inventorydatainputsandoutputsassignedto relevantimpactcategories Characterization:componentsofeachimpact categoryareaggregatedtoonerepresentative type

Energy depletion Global warming

effects of CO2 and other greenhouse gases

Photochemical Ph t h i l oxidant id t creation ti

smog

Acidification
result of nitrogen and sulphuroxide releases into atmosphere Human toxicity

Ecotoxicity (aquatic and terrestrial) Nutrification

addition of nutrients to soil and water, resulting in reduction of oxygen

Ozone depletion

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CharacterizationEquivalencyFactors

Normalization
Which is more harmful?
Global warming potential = 250kg CO2 equivalent Nutrification potential = 149kg PO4-3(phosphate) equivalent

Normalization is a process by which the environmental index is scaled to some regional or global referent.

Which is more harmful?

Global warming potential = 250kg/37.7x1012 kg CO2 equivalent
6.6 x 10 12 relative to global CO2 production

Nutrification potential = 149kg/74.8x109 kg phosphate equivalent

1995 x 10 12 relative to global Phosphate production

ValuationandInterpretation
Subjective weighing process
Affected by location, politics, interests, opinions

WhyuseLCA?
It is quantitative.
LCA provides an objective, scientific, numerical basis for decisionmaking. Enhances the reproducibility and consequent credibility of an environmental assessment.

End result is a single environmental index, which simplifies all of the data into one value
Loss of transparency Loss of specificity Gain in comparability

It is integrative.
By y looking g at a p product or p product function from cradle to g grave, , the LCA process avoids problem shifting. It encourages early interdisciplinary collaborations

Known sets of weighing factors:

EPS system Ecopoints NSAEL factors etc.

EvaluatingtheBuiltEnvironment
(or,whypeopledonttendtouseLCAforbuildingsand infrastructure)

SomeChallengesofusingLCAto assesstheBuiltEnvironment
Comparableproductsmayhaveradically differentLCA outputsduetomethodofproduction,distancefromjob site,machineryusedinproductionandinstallation, etc.
Oftenproducersarereluctanttorevealdisaggregateddataasit mayrevealtradesecrets

The built environment is a collection of products and functions.

Datadoesnotyetexistreliably inaggregatedform Themethodofconstructioncanaffectthelongevityand endoflifeoptionsofaproduct,therebypotentially renderinganLCAmisleading (ifitexistsatall) Manyofthesechallengescanbeaddressedtosomedegree byselectingappropriatescopeandassessmentboundaries thatminimize sensitivityanderror

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Example:Cork
Touted to be an environmentally preferable product in building
Flooring Insulation

It is considered a rapidly renewable resource. Characteristics:

Aquickexample LIFECYCLEASSESSMENT

Low density (lightweight) High elasticity Low thermal and electrical conductivity High resistance to wearing

Often combined with binders that have potentially negative effects on the environment.

SystemandDataBoundaries

DataAcquisition
(source:ecoinvent database)
Therearealittle over1000 emission categorieslisted perproduct! Emissions E i i toair i Emissionsto water Emissionsto land Resourceuse Landuse Waste generation Etc.

DataProcessing
Identify economic flows
Process products Goods and Services
Raw Cork, at forest road Transport truck Etc.

NextSteps
LCAassumeslinearity Input/outputaccountingresultsinasetof simultaneousequations
Aslongassomemechanismhasbeenimplementedto dealwiththeproblemofallocation,thereshouldbe asmanyequationsasthereareunknownvariables.

Identify Id tif environmental i t l flows fl

Natural resources; raw materials Emissions to land, air, and water

Formaldehyde Waste heat Etc.

Solvingtheequationsgivesthetotal environmentalimpactoftheproductionof1kg corkslab,atplant

Thisiseasilydoneinspreadsheetformat

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SimpleMatrixFormulation

SimpleMatrixFormulation

SimpleMatrixFormulation
As = f
A is the Economic matrix s is the Scale vector f is the Economic flow vector

Bs = g
B is the Environmental matrix s is the Scale vector g is the Environmental profile

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