Environmental and economic optimization of a conventional concrete building foundation: Selecting the best of 28 alternatives by applying the pareto front

This research optimizes the environmental impact of a conventional building foundation in Northern Europe while considering the economic cost. The foundation is composed of piles and ground beams. Calculations are performed following relevant building Eurocodes and using life cycle assessment methodology. Concrete and steel accounted for the...

Eco-efficient value creation of residential street lighting systems by simultaneously analysing the value, the costs and the eco-costs during the design and engineering phase

In search of sustainable business models, product innovation must fulfil a double objective: the new product must have a higher (market) value, and at the same time a lower eco-burden. To achieve this objective, it is an imperative that the value, the total costs of ownership, and the eco-burden of a product are analysed at the beginning of...

The Eco-Costs of Material Scarcity, a Resource Indicator for LCA, Derived from a Statistical Analysis on Excessive Price Peaks

The availability of resources is crucial for the socio-economic stability of our society. For more than two decades, there was a debate on how to structure this issue within the context of life-Cycle assessment (LCA). The classical approach with LCA is to describe "scarcity" for future generations (100-1000 years) in terms of absolute...

The role of hydrogen in the ecological benefits of ultra low sulphur diesel production and use: An LCA benchmark

Desulphurization of oil-based fuels is common practice to mitigate the ecological burden to ecosystems and human health of SO_x emissions. In many countries, fuels for vehicles are restricted to 10 ppm sulphur. For marine fuels, low sulphur contents are under discussion. The environmental impact of desulphurization processes is,...

Vepa: An Exploration towards sustainability and the development of an eco-efficient office storage unit

Through the use of eco-label guidelines, eco-design guidelines, and LCA-based environmental impact and sustainability indicators like Eco-costs, the Eco-cost to Value Ratio (EVR) and ReCiPe points, a boundary and baseline for new product development can be set to which an improvement can be measured. In addition to this the LCA based indicators...