The changing role of life cycle phases, subsystems and materials in the LCA of low energy buildings

A detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been conducted on a low energy family house recently built in Northern Italy. The net winter heat requirement is 10 kWh/m2 per year, while the same unit with legal standard insulation would require 110 kWh/m2. As the building was claimed to be sustainable on the basis of its outstanding energy saving performances, an ex post LCA was set up to understand whether, and to what extent, the positive judgement could be confirmed in a life cycle perspective. The dramatic contribution of materials-related impacts emerged. The shell-embedded materials represented the highest relative contribution, but maintenance operations also played a major role. The contributions of plants, building process and transportation were minor. The important role of the recycling potential also emerged. Unlike standard buildings, where heating-related impacts overshadow the rest of the life cycle, there is no single dominating item or aspect. Rather, several of them play equally important roles. The study has confirmed that the initial goal of environmental sustainability was reached, but to a much lower extent than previously thought. In comparison to a standard house, while the winter heat requirement was reduced by a ratio of 10:1, the life cycle energy was only reduced by 2.1:1 and the carbon footprint by 2.2:1