[Bldg-sim] carbon footprinting of building materials

Marceau, Medgar MMarceau at ctlgroup.com
Thu Jun 19 10:05:59 PDT 2008


Hi Ramana,
 
For single-family houses at least, a building's carbon footprint is
primarily a function of it's operational energy use (unless it is a VERY
low-energy building). The carbon footprint of building material
(cradle-to-gate plus transportation) is miniscule compared to energy for
HVAC, lights, etc. Other building types are probably similar. Regardless
of which tool or database you use, you need an energy simulation (or
utility bills) and a tool or database with good data on the carbon
footprint of delivered electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, etc. I use
SimaPro, but it's expensive and requires significant time to learn and
build models.
 
You can see a comparison between environmental footprint of building
materials and building energy use in "Comparison of the Life Cycle
Assessments of an Insulating Concrete Form House and a Wood Frame House"
(you can search the website cement.org/bookstore/ for this
publication--it's free!). 

Good luck!
 
Medgar Marceau, PE (Illinois), LEED-AP, CSI
Building Science Engineer
CTLGroup
MMarceau at CTLGroup.com


-----Original Message-----
From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Harvey
Bryan
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 11:45 AM
To: Ramana Koti; bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org; sbse at uidaho.edu
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] carbon footprinting of building materials

Ramana,
 
I just had a student complete her Master's thesis on LCA/Carbon
Footprinting for several campus buildings that we had data for. She used
the Eco Assembly Calculator, it is a free download from Athena. I was
very impressed with that tool but the material database is limited,
however that should improve over time. I will send your her thesis. 
 
Regards
 
Harvye Bryan

________________________________

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org on behalf of Ramana Koti
Sent: Thu 6/19/2008 8:20 AM
To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org; sbse at uidaho.edu
Subject: [Bldg-sim] carbon footprinting of building materials


Dear all,

>From all those out there who are basing their building material and
specifications decisions on Lifecycle Analysis/carbon footprinting, I'm
curious to know what tools you have been using and the challenges you
have faced.

I'm also interested in references of consultants who can aid in such an
effort.

Thanks,

RAMANA KOTI Assoc. ASHRAE LEED(r) AP
Sustainable Building Analyst

ELEMENTS division of BNIM architects
106 West 14th Street Suite 200
Kansas City Missouri 64105

d 816.783.1635 f 816.783.1501
bnim.com <http://bnim.com/>  | elements.bnim.com
<http://elements.bnim.com/>  

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