Lead Performer: Argonne National Laboratory – Lemont, IL
DOE Total Funding: $375,000
Project Term: September 1, 2019 – September 30, 2020, to be renewed
Funding Type: Lab Award
Project Objective
As the buildings sector moves to sustainable construction and operation, the embodied energy and environmental footprints of buildings and building components need to be quantified. Analyzing life-cycle energy and emissions of buildings improves our understanding of the sustainability of different building materials and building design decisions. One of the goals of BTO’s Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative is to evaluate not only the energy savings impacts of ABC technologies, but also the life-cycle impacts. In order to accomplish this goal, Argonne National Laboratory will develop methodologies and generate data to conduct life-cycle analysis (LCA) of ABC technologies for building components and whole buildings.
Argonne National Lab will expand the GREET model for LCA of building components and whole buildings. The buildings LCA module that Argonne is developing in the GREET LCA modeling platform will enable holistic assessments of embodied energy and GHG emissions from building material manufacturing, construction, to demolition, and material recycling at end of life. These embodied energy use and emission results can be compared with those of buildings operations so that sustainability of buildings can be addressed holistically. Detailed LCA of selected building components will be completed to test and validate the LCA methodologies and the new GREET building LCA module.
Project Impact
The LCA methodologies and GREET building LCA module developed will allow BTO and its stakeholders to evaluate life-cycle sustainability of emerging building components and technologies when prioritizing future ABC investments. The new modeling capabilities provide timely guidance to BTO R&D to improve sustainability with transparent, holistic, and reliable analysis and data.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: Dale Hoffmeyer
Lead Performer: Michael Wang, Argonne National Laboratory