【高力国际】2024年房地产与建筑业生命周期评估LCA报告-实现真正的碳减排与环境效益英文版_16页_1mb

Summary of Colliers' Sustainability Research: Life Cycle Assessments in Real Estate and Construction

Core Content

This document explores the importance of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) in the real estate and construction industry, emphasizing their role in accurately measuring the environmental impact of buildings over their entire lifecycle. It highlights the need to move beyond traditional carbon footprint analysis, which often focuses only on operational emissions, to include embodied carbon from materials and construction processes.

Main Points

• Buildings and Carbon Emissions: The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions. As buildings become more energy-efficient, the proportion of emissions from operational energy is declining, while embodied emissions from construction and renovation are increasing.

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): LCA is a scientific method that evaluates environmental impacts across all stages of a building's lifecycle, from material extraction to end-of-life. It considers both operational and embodied impacts, providing a more comprehensive view than carbon footprinting alone.

• Phantom Savings and Pollution Shift: Modifying technology (e.g., switching to electric vehicles) may reduce operational emissions but transfer the environmental burden to other phases, such as material extraction and disposal. Similarly, reducing operational energy use can lead to pollution shifts to other regions or materials, highlighting the need for holistic assessments.

• Functional Unit: A key element of LCA is the functional unit, which ensures fair and accurate comparisons. For example, when comparing building materials, the functional unit should reflect the actual service provided (e.g., load-bearing capacity), not just volume or weight.

• Environmental Impacts Beyond Carbon: LCAs should consider a range of environmental impacts, including toxicity, ozone depletion, water pollution, and ecosystem damage. The document illustrates how different energy sources have varying environmental footprints, depending on the country's energy mix.

• Office Building Case Study: A study of 26 office buildings shows that over 80% of their lifetime carbon emissions are embodied, with fit-outs and equipment upgrades contributing significantly to this. Over 50 years, the total carbon footprint can more than triple due to repeated renovations and increased energy use from plug loads.

• Regulatory Context: France has introduced mandatory LCA frameworks through the RE2020 regulations, setting embodied carbon thresholds and promoting industry-wide benchmarking. Other countries are also beginning to adopt similar approaches.

• Decarbonization Pathways: The document suggests several strategies for reducing the environmental impact of office buildings:

  • Using sustainable materials for fit-outs and extending their lifespan.
  • Creating flexible and adaptive workspaces to reduce the need for frequent renovations.
  • Investing in passive building strategies to reduce mechanical systems and operational energy use.

Key Information

• Embodied Carbon Dominates: In many buildings, embodied carbon (from construction and renovation) is more significant than operational carbon.

• LCAs Provide Nuanced Insights: By considering all life cycle phases and environmental impact categories, LCAs enable more informed and sustainable decisions.

• Country-Specific Energy Mix Matters: The environmental impact of electricity varies by country, depending on the energy sources used. For instance, countries with a coal-based grid (e.g., China, Germany) have higher environmental impacts compared to those using renewable energy (e.g., France, Switzerland).

• Multicriteria LCAs Are Essential: To avoid impact transfer and pollution shift, LCAs must evaluate multiple environmental impact categories, ensuring that reducing emissions in one area doesn't cause harm in another.

Conclusion

The document concludes that a comprehensive LCA is essential for achieving real, lasting carbon reductions and environmental benefits in the real estate and construction sector. It emphasizes that future decarbonization efforts must account for the entire lifecycle of buildings, including the often-overlooked embodied carbon from fit-outs and equipment upgrades. By adopting multicriteria LCAs, stakeholders can make more informed decisions that support sustainable development and long-term value preservation.

Key Takeaways

• LCAs are crucial for understanding the true environmental impact of buildings.
• Embodied carbon is increasingly significant compared to operational emissions.
• Phantom savings and pollution shifts must be avoided through holistic analysis.
• Functional units ensure accurate and equitable comparisons between materials and systems.
• Regulatory developments, such as France's RE2020, are pushing for more standardized LCA practices.
• Office buildings require a long-term view of environmental impact, with fit-outs and upgrades playing a major role.
• Passive strategies and sustainable materials offer effective decarbonization pathways.
• Multicriteria assessments are necessary to ensure environmental benefits are not offset by other negative impacts.

Contact Information

• Sean Drygas
  Global Head of Sustainability
  Email: sean.drygas@colliers.com

• Kateryna Kuzmenko
  Consulting Manager, Real Estate Advisory
  Email: kateryna.kuzmenko@colliers.com

• Website: colliers.com

• Global Head Office:
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  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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  Phone: +1 416 960 9500