IEA EBC Annex 72: Assessing life cycle related environmental impacts caused by buildings

The construction sector has great potential to reduce its energy consumption and the associated environmental impacts. The IEA EBC Annex 72 therefore focuses on the harmonization of methods for the assessment of construction-specific and operational environmental impacts (primary energy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and other indicators) throughout the life cycle of buildings.

Short Description

The objective of the Austrian contribution within the framework of IEA EBC Annex 72 is to collaborate on the development of internationally harmonized methodologies for the assessment of environmental impacts in the life cycle of buildings. In order to support the applicability of harmonized methods during building design, the integration with workflows and tools of the design process, as well as the development of environmental benchmarks on building levels are investigated.

Current advances in computer-aided design methods offer possibilities for the integration of specific characteristics and values within multi-dimensional, object-specific Building Information Models (BIM). The increasing application and standardization of these processes in Austria and Europe (ÖN A6241, CEN/TC 442) provide the basis for this integration.

Stages and environmental impacts in the life cycle of buildings. Embodied impacts arise in all life cycle stages, while operational impacts only occur during the use stage. (Source: AGNHB TU Graz, IEA EBC Annex 72 proposal)

The work in Annex 72 is organised in 5 subtasks:

Subtask 1: Harmonised methodology guidelines
Subtask 2: Building assessment workflows and tools
Subtask 3: Case studies
Subtask 4: Building sector LCA databases
Subtask 5: Dissemination

Austria participates in Annex 72 in ST 1, ST 2, ST 3 and ST 4, as well as in
the general reporting and dissemination (ST 5). A major focus of Austria's participation in Annex 72 will be the lead of "Subtask 2: Building assessment workflows and tools". This will provide international visibility of Austrian expertise in the field of sustainable construction and the integration of product-specific information on the life cycle optimization of buildings in the planning phase. Furthermore, the subtask lead enables national requirements and developments as well as national standardization and research on BIM to be taken specifically into account.

The findings and resulting proposals from Annex 72 works are summarized in guidelines for different stakeholder groups. The target groups of the work in Annex 72 are building design and construction experts such as architects and designers of buildings, as well as owners and other design decision-makers.

Through the cooperation Annex 72 as well as the strategy for national dissemination, networking with stakeholders and international scientific community is taking place both in Austria and on an international level throughout the project.

Participants

Australia, Belgium, Brazil (Observer), China, Denmark, Germany, France, India (Observer), Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary (Observer), United Kingdom, United States of America

Contact Address

Working Group Sustainability Assessment
Graz University of Technology
Assoc.Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Alexander Passer, MSc
DI Dr.Tajda Potrc Obrecht
Technikerstraße 4 / IV, A-8010 Graz
Tel.: +43 316 873 5256
E-Mail: alexander.passer@tugraz.at; tajda.obrecht@tugraz.at
Web: https://agnhb.tugraz.at