The climate impact of a preschool building in Gothenburg - Focus on the building process and the choice of construction materials

Abstract

Until today, the construction sector's focus has been to reduce the environmental impact of the operation phase by building energy efficient buildings and using renewable energy solutions. This due to the operational phase is being considered, from a life cycle perspective, the stage that has the greatest climate impact. Recent studies report that the building's carbon footprint has become more equal between the construction process and the operational phase. This is given by the reduced energy usages resulting in tight and well-insulated building envelopes and has also increased the use of building materials. The aim of this master thesis is to bring up the question about the climate impact of the construction materials in the building process, and identify building materials with large impact on the climate in a new built preschool in Gothenburg by calculating a part of an LCA analysis. The delimitation has been made to the preschool building’s envelope and the analysis is based on a "cradle to gate"-LCA, meaning that the building material’s climate impact caused by the manufacturing which have been analyzed. The result of the calculation is that approximately 293 tons of carbon dioxide have been emitted during the production of the analyzed materials which are included in Södra Sälöfjordsgatans preschool. The concrete slab represents the largest climate impact by 27%, followed by 26% for intermediate floor and the framework 18%. These results provide an indication of where the major climate impact can be found in the form of building materials and how, in the future, we can work with them to get even better result. Is the desire a comprehensive picture of the environmental impact of the preschool, other environmental categories than climate change should be taken into account. To summarize we need to explore, develop and cooperate more within this subject. If the building sector is going to reduce the climate impact of our buildings, we should do it together, alone is not strong.