Towards Zero Carbon: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Conventional Renovation Strategies for Terraced Houses, Using Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) to Enhance Decision-Making Support – accompanied by the design of a tool: Support for short term and long term decision-making in renovation

To reduce global warming the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) must be net zero in 2050, Paris agreement. In the Netherlands the building sector is responsible for 38% of total GHG emissions, 27% being operational carbon (related to energy use) and 11% embodied carbon (related to the use of materials). A large portion of the GHG emissions in...

Feasibility of Circular Bio-based Unitised Facade Systems

This thesis project proposes the introduction of bio-based materials in the design of unitised curtain wall façade systems. The work investigates a circular bio-based unitised façade design to understand its feasibility regarding thermal, technical, and environmental performance. The research is divided in four phases, including the material,...

Life Cycle Assessment of Offshore Low Head Pumped Hydro Storage

Aiming to comply with the Paris Agreement, the reduction of Europe’s GHG emissions in the energy sector is a must. Due to the intermittency of renewable sources, energy storage technologies are essential to this plan. Offshore Low Head Pumped Hydro Storage (LH PHS) is presented as an alternative to partly solve this problem. Considering that its...

Temporal Complexity, how time influences life cycle assessments of bio-based materials: A research on the temporal aspects of life cycle assessments

Environmental harm is an influencing factor in policymaking, as climate pressures are frequently on the global agenda. An important tool to guide decision-making in the construction industry is the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, where the quantification of environmental harm is realised. In the method, an estimation of numerous...

First-Year Field Performance of Epoxy-Modified Asphalt

Pavement materials containing epoxy-asphalt are mainly used to enhance the fatigue cracking resistance of surfacing layers on bridges. These materials have also been proposed for roadways, but limited field data are available. In this research, a fully instrumented epoxy-modified asphalt surfacing layer was applied to measure strain responses in...

Life cycle assessment of shared and private use of automated and electric vehicles on interurban mobility

The future of road transportation systems faces fundamental changes concerning technological progress and business models. Automated and electric vehicles are coming into the market and evolving towards a service-based mobility system with promises to tackle energy and environmental issues in the mobility sector. Although recent studies have...

Environmental impacts of key metals' supply and low-carbon technologies are likely to decrease in the future

The environmental benefits of low-carbon technologies, such as photovoltaic modules, have been under debate because their large-scale deployment will require a drastic increase in metal production. This is of concern because higher metal demand may induce ore grade decline and can thereby further intensify the environmental footprint of metal...

Environmental impacts during the operational phase of residential buildings

To date, the focus in the field of sustainable building has been on new building design. However, existing residential buildings inflict great environmental burden through three causes: continuous energy consumption, regular building maintenance and replacements. This publication analyses and compares these three causes of environmental burden...

Environmental impacts during the operational phase of residential buildings

To date, the focus in the field of sustainable building has been on new building design. However, existing residential buildings inflict great environmental burden through three causes: continuous energy consumption, regular building maintenance and replacements. This publication analyses and compares these three causes of environmental burden...

Sustainability aspects of plastic pipe systems; the environmental pillar of the polyvinylchloride (PVC-U) solid wall sewer pipe system

The paper describes the importance that the European Plastic Pipes and Fittings Association (TEPPFA) attaches to sustainability aspects that are related to their business and products and focuses on a recently performed life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declaration (EPD) project. First the incentives of TEPPFA to apply the...