Life Cycle assessment in Brazilian civil construction: analysis of environmental impacts

Abstract

Globally, the construction industry is considered to be one of the main greenhouse gas emitters and energy consumers. This is why having a focus on the lifecycle of the raw materials in a construction is so important today. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) helps in decision making and can lead to reducing the environmental impact of construction. The LCA analyzes the environmental impacts produced by the various phases of the construction process, from the extraction and manufacture of raw materials to the renovation or demolition of the structure. These impacts can be assessed through the measure of atmospheric emissions, natural resource consumption, energy demands and solid and liquid waste generation. This paper aims to, making use of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, calculate the energy impacts and CO₂ emissions in a case study of the construction of a school. The project is called Urban Educational Space and is presented by the FNDE (Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação). To calculate the results, several assumptions based on the Brazilian scenario were adopted. With them, it was possible to see that there are several ways to easily cause a reduction of about 20% in impacts of both energy demand and CO₂ emissions. In addition, the results showed that recycling can reduce the future impact on other constructions.