Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Selected Materials—Building Façades in Poland

TL;DR

This study compares the environmental impact of different building façade materials in Poland to identify more sustainable options.

Contribution

The study provides the first real-data-based life cycle assessment of façades in Poland, filling a literature gap.

Findings

ETICS with EPS performs better in most environmental impact categories compared to ventilated façades.

Mineral wool is the main environmental hotspot for ventilated façades, while the finish coat is critical for ETICS.

The study offers a foundation for future cradle-to-grave life cycle assessments of buildings in Poland.

Abstract

The use of sustainable building materials is becoming increasingly important in order to reduce their environmental impact. This article draws attention to the lack of life cycle assessment (LCA) of building façades, which would take into account national conditions. The aim of the work is to assess the environmental impact of various building façade solutions. The analysis concerned a ventilated façade on an aluminum substructure with a fiber cement board and external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) with expanded polystyrene (EPS). The assessed façades differed with regard to the used insulation materials. The study aims to select more ecological façades, while at the same time taking into account national conditions, which is important at the stage of designing a building. The study also aims to fill a gap in the existing literature by providing information concerning the environmental analysis of building façades based on real data. Based on a comparative analysis, it was shown that ETICSs with EPS have higher façade-damage category indicators in all impact categories except for eutrophication, human toxicity (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic), and resource use related to minerals and metals, for which the ventilated façade shows higher values. Additionally, hot-spots for the analyzed façades were also presented. In the case of a ventilated façade, the determinant is the used insulating material, which is mineral wool. In the case of ETICS, it is the finish coat. For the first time in Poland, the LCA of a ventilated façade and ETICS was presented based on real data. The results of this study can be used as the first step of a full cradle-to-grave LCA for buildings.

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