Reducing the environmental impact of distribution centres: Designing green-enveloped biobased alternatives to compare with reference steel and concrete designs

The climate emergency calls for a global shift towards a low-carbon economy, to preserve natural resources and biodiversity, while limiting global warming and its consequences. This project focuses on the impact of distribution centres, intended for the storage of commercial goods. Warehouses are characterised by large flexible spaces and simple...

Life cycle assessment of material footprint in recycling: A case of concrete recycling

Meeting the current demand for concrete requires not only mining tons of gravel and sand, but also burning large amounts of fossil fuel resources in cement kilning. Consequently, concrete recycling is crucial to achieving a material-efficient society, especially with the application of various categories of concrete and the goal of phasing...

The environmental impact of structural elements made of concrete compared to timber: A case study of terraced housing in the Netherlands

This research tries to answer the question which construction material, concrete or timber, is best to use during the construction of terraced housing in the Netherlands, based on the environmental performance. Existing studies often do not take all aspects of a design for the comparison into account, or have a bias toward one material. In order...

Reducing the environmental impact of distribution centres: Environmental impact assessment of the load-bearing structures of distribution centre design alternatives

Buildings influence the environment due to the emission of greenhouse gases, energy use, water consumption, and waste generation. The load-bearing structures of buildings also have a significant share in these emissions. Currently, European and national regulations oblige to focus on sustainability in designs as well. In this research, it is...

Influence of materials composition and transportation tours on life cycle assessment of recycled aggregate concrete

In a context of incitation to the waste recovery as recycled aggregates to be re-introduced into new concrete, this paper aims to compare the environmental impacts related to the composition of concrete to ones due to the transportation of the recycled aggregates, issued from demolition wastes, by implementing a life cycle assessment (LCA). This...