Analysis of material and energy efficiency of Mexican, Peruvian and Dutch dwellings using the three-step-strategy

Abstract

Buildings consume resources and produces emissions to the environment during their life cycle. They consume materials during their construction, maintenance and renovation activities, consume energy and water during their use, and produce waste at the end of their useful life. There are several sustainable building methods for environmental assessment; the results of these depend on the approach taken and therefore also on the objective or endpoint of the assessment. The most common strategies aim at reducing their impacts, but buildings will always have an environmental load. Therefore, to calculate the absolute damage of a building to the environment, as it is done in the Life Cycle Assessment may be considered inadequate for assessment when the objective is to improve the environmental performance of the building from design. The three step strategy is an option being a method that focuses on a different approach. This strategy establishes that for a sustainable use of resources, three steps are necessary: a) to reduce the need or use of resources, b) to use renewable sources to sustain the need and c) to be efficient with the remaining need. The method has advantages and disadvantages related to accuracy, data needed, output, and interpretation of results. In this research, the method is applied on case studies. Dwellings are analyzed to improve their environmental performance with the objective to point out at the limitation of the method in relation to its applicability and usability