Sustainable asset management: Reducing the environmental effects related to maintenance and partial replacement of facade components

SUSTAINABLE ASSET MANAGEMENT:

Reducing the environmental effects related to maintenance and partial

replacement of façade components

Inge Blom

OTB Research Institute, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

This research deals with the environmental

sustainability of dwellings in use, focusing on

the maintenance and replacement of façade

components. The factors that cause the biggest

environmental effects are identified, providing

focus for building managers and maintenance

companies to improve the environmental

sustainability of existing dwellings.

SUMMARY

Comparisons are made of different maintenance

scenarios for a reference building: a gallery flat building which contains 70 dwellings. The scenario analysis is based on life cycle assessment (LCA).

The variables in the scenarios are:

- the materials used for building components, - the type of paint used,

- the timing of maintenance and replacement activities, - energy for space heating used in the building, and

- transport distance of maintenance workers.

METHODOLOGY

- Improving the thermal quality of the façade is the

most effective measure to improve the environmental sustainability of existing dwellings. Replacing plain

double glazing by high insulation thermal glazing reduces the environmental load by 10-35%.

- Shortening distances travelled by maintenance

workers and investing in more sustainable vehicles can effectively reduce the environmental effects associated with maintenance activities.

- Lengthening the service life of building components and

decreasing the frequency of maintenance activities, at a constant level of quality, reduces environmental effects by avoiding the

production of new products and transport of maintenance workers. The benefits increase over time.

- Using alternative materials for building components reduces

some environmental effects, while increasing others. The positive and negative effects are larger than the positive effect of

lengthening service lives or decreasing maintenance frequency.

CONCLUSIONS

RESULTS

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 A b io ti c d e p le ti o n G lo b a l w a rm in g O z o n e l a y e r d e p le ti o n P h o to c h e m ic a l o x id a ti o n H u m a n t o x ic it y F re s h w a te r a q u a ti c e c o to x ic it y T e rr e s tr ia l e c o to x ic it y A c id if ic a ti o n E u tr o p h ic a ti o n Environmental effect

Index double glazing high insulation glazing Global warming

0,00E+00 2,00E+04 4,00E+04 6,00E+04 8,00E+04 1,00E+05 1,20E+05 1,40E+05 1,60E+05 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 years CO2 eq. 50 km 12.5 km 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 A b io ti c d e p le ti o n G lo b a l w a rm in g O z o n e l a y e r d e p le ti o n P h o to c h e m ic a l o x id a ti o n H u m a n t o x ic it y F re s h w a te r a q u a ti c e c o to x ic it y T e rr e s tr ia l e c o to x ic it y A c id if ic a ti o n E u tr o p h ic a ti o n Environmental effect Index

reference scenario preserved pine reduction frequency maintenance PVC

increased service life components acrylic paint

* * * * * * * * * *

Replacing double glazing with high insulation glazing after 50 years of maintenance and use.

Reducing travel distances of maintenance workers. The positive effect increases over time.

Using different materials or different timing of maintenance and replacement activities for 50 years.