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User Manual and Transparency Document

1. 1 Produce Project results model the complete building except the reused material and export the desired results by Life Cycle Stage i e information module to Excel 2 Produce Material results in a separate file with the same building information e g location height etc input the quantity of reused material into the Extra Basic Materials input dialog Export the desired results by Life Cycle Stage to Excel 3 Add Material A4 A5 C1 C2 C4 information module results to the corresponding Project information module results 4 f the reused material undergoes replacement during the building service life replacement effects shall be calculated according to the following procedure a Calculate the number of replacements the reused material undergoes Number of replacements building service life product service life product service life b Sum Material A5 C1 and C4 information module results multiply the total by the number of replacements from step a and add to the Project B4a information module results c Sum Material A4 and C2 information module results multiply the total by the NR from step a and add to the Project B4b information module results District energy facilities While the IE4B does not directly support modeling building operating energy sourced from district cogeneration conventional boiler and cooling facilities users can models these effects according to this section provided that
2. Materials 36 When you re done click OK and a new Columns and Beams assembly group G and your new assembly A will appear in the tree under your project level P A short note about terminology There is sometimes confusion about our choice of labels for different structural elements The IE4B refers to the Bay Size as the length of a beam supported by two columns and Span as the distance between adjacent parallel beams see figure 4 below Some assemblies ask for the number of bays and rows Bay Size and Span will determine the area of one bay and a row is a row of bays The drawing below shows two rows of bays and each row is three bays long The total floor area in the example below is Bay Size x Span x Number of Bays per Row x Number of Rows Bay Size x Span x 6 3 Bays per Row Figure 6 Bay and Span terminology e Watch a seven minute video demonstration on adding a column and beam assembly 04 Adding Assemblies Columns and Beams e Read the help file about how to add columns and beams Click gt Add or Modify Assemblies gt Columns and Beams Adding floors and roofs Roof and floor assemblies are almost identical metal building systems is a roof only and light frame wood truss floors do not have a pitched option in the IE4B so they re described here together 37 Right click on the Project level P in the tree hover over Floors or Roofs and click on the assembly type that you want from the list belo
3. Reporting The results of the modelling described in the previous sections are presented in the Beyond Building Life Module D columns of the result tables The initial credit and the emissions from recycling combustion aerobic landfills fugitive landfill gas landfill gas from anaerobic landfills without capture equipment and flared landfill gas are all rolled up into a single result Portion of anaerobic landfills w LFG technology from Dymond Caren 2012 Forest Carbon in North America annual storage and emissions from British Columbia s harvest 1965 2065 Carbon Balance and Management 7 8 Table 9 22 Landfill model parameters from USEPA 2012 Documentation for Landfilling Used in the Waste Reduction Model WARM Version 12 Documentation http epa gov epawaste conserve tools warm pdfs Landfilling pdf a3 Dump decay rate from Skog Kenneth E 2008 Sequestration of carbon in harvested wood products for the United States Forest products journal 58 6 56 72 Table 7 Derived from IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Vol 5 Table 3 4 33 User manual The IE4B has extensive context specific help files embedded in the software which are also accessible here if you are reading this document on line find it at http calculatelca com software impact estimator help files In this section we summarize how to use the software and provide some tips See the on line help for detailed explana
4. hour or so Remember that the IE4B is only recommended for building projects located in the US or Canada As with any LCA software and data geographic relevance is critical the IE4B contains highly detailed data very specific to North American regions Using this tool for a different world region will yield questionable accuracy in the results Ready to go Here are the steps to get started 1 Goto www calculatelca com and create a user account 2 Download the software we have choices most common is the 32 bit version 3 When download is complete open your downloads folder 4 Open the readme file important read this and follow the instructions to complete the installation Watch our short demo videos the overview video may be enough for starters Take it for a test drive The IE4B will be intuitive for anyone familiar with typical Windows based applications it has a standard menu bar and standard menu actions 7 Need help Watch the other videos check out our FAQs use this manual and don t forget that the IE4B has context specific help embedded throughout the program just click the question mark icon oum What s under the hood The Athena Institute is committed to transparency Whenever possible and where our limited resources allow we provide as much information as we can about the mechanics assumptions and data underlying our tools LCA Methodology The underlying LCA method used in the IE4B
5. produced or consumed lost at the end of a final products life This net scrap is determined as follows 28 Net scrap Amount of steel recycled at end of life RR Scrap input S The credit for steel recycling at the end of the final products life would result in subtracting the LCI value of steel scrap For example for steel products with a low S scrap input value e g 0 20 kg kg product and a very high EOL recycling rate of 98 0 98 kg kg product a credit based on the net amount of scrap of 0 78 kg 0 98 0 20 is given to the product system The burden for scrap consumption would result in adding the LCI value of steel scrap For example for steel products with a high S scrap input value e g 1 kg kg product and a lower EOL recycling rate of 70 0 70 kg kg product a burden based on the net amount of scrap of 0 30 kg 0 70 1 00 is given to the product system The LCI value of steel scrap is determined as follows ScrapLCl Yx Xpr Xe The LCI value of steel scrap is thus equal to the credit associated with the avoided primary production of steel assuming 0 scrap input minus the burden associated with the recycling of steel scrap to make new steel and multiplied by the yield of this process to consider losses in the process The LCI value of steel scrap dataset was provided to Athena to model the cradle to grave LCI profiles for all steel products supported in the IE4B as
6. In addition there are uncertainties inherent in LCA as with any complex modeling This is why LCA is a science of best estimates and not a science of absolute measurement Use LCA to help gauge relative performance across options which then helps to refine the direction of further decisions Learn more about LCA at www athenasmi org Getting started as a new user Wondering if the IE4B is the right tool for your work Consider starting with some education on LCA in general you ll find several introductory webinars and other resources at www athenasmi org Next perhaps watch our 11 minute overview video demo to see what you re getting in to with the IE4B software The IE4B is easy to learn and easy to use but new users typically need a day or two to get comfortable with the software Once up to speed users can typically perform LCA on projects fairly quickly Depending on the size of the building and at which point in the design process a conceptual design will typically be less detailed than a final design and with some experience the amount of time it typically takes to run a project through the software can be as little as an hour to perhaps a day for more complex projects If the material quantities and the project dimensions are well documented and available as in a CAD program the modelling process speeds up considerably 11 There is also an option to import the bill of materials from a CAD design which can be done in an
7. TRACI methodology global warming potential acidification potential human health particulate ozone depletion potential smog potential and eutrophication potential The Impact Estimator additionally reports fossil fuel consumption The IE4B takes into account the environmental impacts of the following life cycle stages material manufacturing including resource extraction and recycled content related transportation on site construction maintenance and replacement effects and demolition and disposal Operating energy can be included in the building LCA if the user inputs an estimate for annual operating fuel consumption The software will calculate total energy including pre combustion energy the energy used to extract refine and deliver energy and the related emissions to air water and land over the life cycle of the building The software can subsequently compare and contrast the life cycle operating and embodied energy and other environmental effects of various design options allowing the user to better understand the inherent trade offs between for example adding more insulation in exchange for a reduction in operating energy use Accommodating multiple comparisons at once the IE4B allows users to change the design substitute materials and make side by side comparisons for any one or all of the environmental impact indicators It also lets users compare similar projects with different floor areas on a unit floor area basis In
8. about how to add a wall Click gt Add or Modify Assemblies Walls Adding columns and beams Right click on the Project level P in the tree hover over Add Assembly and Columns and Beams and click Columns and Beams or Metal Building Systems Columns and Beams As usual enter an assembly name and fill out the required information in the form s fields Complete the required fields number of columns and beams bay size supported span supported roof or floor area column height live load and the column and beam types Metal building systems has its own dialog box and the fields include length width height column spacing and live load The following shows the column and beam material choices that are available e Wood Column e Hollow Structural Steel column e Cast in place Concrete beam and or column e Precast Concrete beam and or column e Glulam beam and or column e LVL PSL beam and or column e Wide flange beam and or column e Wide flange beam and or column Gerber e Mixed column and beam mixed material system e g LVL beam on concrete column e Metal Building Systems Primary frames The column and beam choices are independent of each other so you have the flexibility to mix material types e g steel column and glulam beam There is no envelope tab in Columns and Beams if you wish to add envelope materials to an assembly you will need to calculate the material quantities separately and add them in Extra Basic
9. and where the use of the avoided burden method affects the LCA results The Life Cycle Stage reports are aligned with EN 15804 and EN 15978 in terms of capturing recycling benefits that are beyond the building life cycle Module D grave If you would like to know more about the worldsteel closed material loop recycling methodology refer to Life cycle assessment methodology report World Steel Association 2011 Section 4 6 3 The end of life phase Section 7 2 LCI value of steel scrap and Appendix 10 Recycling methodology 12 Net scrap at the deconstruction stage is calculated as follows Net scra Pdeconstruction RR Sproduction Stabrication Sconstruction 30 Biogenic Carbon Sequestration Accounting Scientific Rationale The IE4B applies a biogenic carbon sequestration accounting methodology that is in general agreement with the following internationally accepted carbon footprint standards e PAS 2050 e ISO TC 14067 e WRI GHG Protocol for Products These three standards share the same rationale namely that forest growth results in the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide which is accounted for as a negative emission i e GWP credit provided that the forest regenerates completely after logging i e no land use change The negative emission is only applied to the carbon in the product itself currently limited to wood products as the fate of co products and waste is unknown The eventual emissions of t
10. currently a stand alone PC desktop application that runs easily on most machines For Macintosh uses it can be run on a Mac with suitable Windows capability or it can be accessed remotely from the Athena server To download the software or learn about remote Mac access go to www calculatelca com The IE4B is updated approximately twice a year Projects that were created in previous versions v4 0 and later remain compatible in new versions and will be updated with a backup of the original file saved when opened in a new version Changes typically include new or updated material LCI databases new or updated assembly options updated LCA methodology and new features for better usability Changes made to the physical models of projects from previous versions are typically minor As an example the softwood lumber data was revised in v5 0 and green lumber which was previously available as a material choice but is no longer in v5 0 it is no longer a commonly used material has to be replaced by kiln dried lumber So a project in a previous version that used green lumber for a wood stud wall when opened in v5 0 will have that wall assembly automatically changed to kiln dried lumber since that is now the only choice available While this a minor change to the model it s the same amount of lumber the LCA results may be significant since kiln dried lumber is more energy intensive than green lumber In summary although project files are compa
11. embodied comparisons Look at the life cycle operating and embodied energy and other environmental effects of the building design thus allowing the user to better understand the inherent trade offs associated with adding more envelope materials e g insulation with reductions in operating energy use This is available only for individual projects as a graph for global warming potential or energy consumption Rating Systems Reports Graphs and tables are available that present summary measure results in the formats that the LEED and Green Globes rating systems expect in their submissions Bill of Materials The Bill of Materials report is a running total of all the materials modeled in a project As you add new assemblies or materials the BOM report will be updated as you go along It can be useful to monitor the BOM as you add assemblies or envelope systems so you can see what materials get added automatically e g adding an asphalt roofing system in roof envelopes will add modified bitumen insulation gypsum board nails etc to the BOM It is from the BOM that the individual material data are applied in order to calculate the absolute value LCI tables Interpreting results So now you have modeled your building and produced the results what do the results mean and what should you do with them First understand that the results say nothing about whether or not your building is a good environmental performer There is no
12. of a building for example LCA for only the floor assembly or LCA used when selecting individual products Whole building LCA allows maximum flexibility in trade offs For example although the addition of more insulation will result in increased material impacts of a building it will often result in a net life cycle benefit due to reduced operating energy consumption In a whole building LCA all of the flows between the building and nature are inventoried that is the resources consumed and the substances or wastes emitted to air water and land are calculated for every stage of the building life cycle Next those environmental flows are assessed for their likely consequential impact on the environment For example once we know the lifetime consumption of coal fired electricity for constructing operating and disposing of a building we can then estimate the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to this consumption and the subsequent increase in global warming potential 10 Recycling Reuse Disposal Resource Extraction Demolition Occupancy Maintenance On site Construction Figure 2 The life cycle stages of LCA for buildings and building products It s important to look at LCA results in the right context and with the right expectations LCA is a comprehensive assessment process but it can t do everything on the sustainability agenda and it is not intended to do so Multiple tools are required for that
13. or BIM program you may want to skip down to using the bill of materials import feature Otherwise see below for the steps involved in adding assemblies to your building file Adding foundations With a project started and saved in the tree right click on the P icon and hover your mouse over Add Assembly then Foundations and choose your assembly type in this case either Concrete Footing or Concrete Slab on Grade A dialog box will open where you can describe the geometry of your assembly Enter an assembly name and enter the required values and or choose options from the radio button lists and change the units if necessary For example in Concrete Footing you will need to enter a name length width and thickness in the boxes and choose a rebar size concrete type and flyash percentage There is an Envelope tab at the top of the form from which you can add envelope materials to your assembly Click on Envelope then Insert and a dialog box will appear where you can choose the Envelope Category and Envelope Material from the drop down lists In the case of insulations you need to enter an insulation thickness Click OK and the envelope material that you ve just selected 34 will appear in the Envelope Components list To add another envelope material click Insert again and repeat the last step If you want to use this particular configuration of envelope materials again click Save as Predefined and give it a name This will be ad
14. per worldsteel recycling methodology Furthermore we applied the SRI 2013 recycling rates RR for both structural and reinforcement steel for the reference year 2011 STRUCTURAL STEEL RECYCLING RATE REINFORCEMENT STEEL RECYCLING RATE a Figure 4 Recycling rates of North American steel products Source SRI 20131 2 s 9 80 T 60 50 30 2 J 1997 1998 1990 2000 204 2002 2909 2004 2005 2006 207 M 200 2010 200 Life cycle assessment methodology report World Steel Association 2011 7 2 LCI value of steel scrap pg 39 1 Life cycle assessment methodology report World Steel Association 2011 10 6 2 The LCI of steel scrap pg 75 SRI 2013 http www recycle steel org en Recycling 20Resources media Files SRI Media 20Center RateSheet2011 pdf 29 The closed material loop recycling methodology is the baseline database methodology applied in the IE4B software To the cradle to gate North American steel LCI dataset the Athena Institute has added the environmental burden of all downstream processes specific to the building steel products on a life cycle stage basis in accordance with ISO 14044 2006 and ISO 21930 2007 as follows e Manufacturing stage Includes the cradle to gate of semi finished steel product fabrication process fabrication scrap collection processing and transport to steel mills and the LCI value of fabrication scrap as per worldsteel methodology e Construction stage Includes t
15. site waste generated by maintenance and replaced components and their final disposition o Typical life expectancy service life of each material product by region based on empirical evidence and or product warranty periods o Mass of waste material and its final disposition Maintenance and replacement schedules have been separately assessed for each of the building types specified in the Impact Estimator Essentially the maintenance algorithms in the software assume two levels of maintenance a more aggressive maintenance and replacement schedule for owner occupied buildings and a less aggressive schedule for rental and leased properties with single family residential institutional commercial and industrial building archetypes assumed to be owner 25 occupied Maintenance and replacement schedules for envelope elements have also been developed for each region supported by the software The software assumes that replacement materials or components will be the same as those used in original construction This is almost certain not to be the case but the alternative is technological forecasting which would introduce a higher level of uncertainty In situations where the service life of a replacement material or component exceeds the remaining user specified service life of the building the difference is credited For example a 20 year service life window installed 10 years prior to the end of the building service life will be credited wit
16. the structural framing requirements of the wall automatically change addition of studs and headers to accommodate the opening Regional specificity User selection of a region activates appropriate electricity grids transportation modes and distances and product manufacturing technologies applicable to the product mix for the selected region In the software North American cities are used to designate regions because material or product flows energy use and other considerations are not readily defined by strict political boundaries The user selects the city that is the closest representation of the actual building site location In regionalizing our data we complete a regional product market share analysis to determine where products are typically coming from for each region This information is used to develop weighted average life cycle inventory profiles for the products as well as weighted average transportation profiles based on distance and modal split Some products such as cement and aggregate are more local while others such as aluminum travel greater distances and some products are often sourced offshore e g steel For modeling purposes to the extent possible and where relevant all offshore products are treated as though they were manufactured in North America an assumption that may change in the future as more reliable and consistent international datasets become available However the transportation component for offshor
17. to the proportion of the year that the temperature falls below O C For materials that are likely to be mechanically lifted we also include the energy required to lift those materials by crane an average distance of half of the height of the building International Energy Agency IEA http www iea org Statistics Canada CANSIM reports http www5 statcan gc ca cansim DOE EIA State Electricity Profiles 2012 http www eia gov electricity state nevada index cfm EPA eGRID http www epa gov cleanenergy energy resources egrid index html 24 The IE4B assumes there will be waste created during the construction phase and accounts for wasted materials in the LCA calculation The software applies a construction waste factor for each material in order to acknowledge the material consumption represented by cut offs and unused lost or damaged materials Different materials have different waste factors and some that arrive on site preassembled and are installed e g windows precast panels have a 0 waste factor Included in the construction transportation results is the transportation to landfill of the construction waste On site construction does not include site prep or utility hook ups Every site will be different with different soil conditions and it is impossible to generalize the effects based solely on the building footprint Also since the IE4B is meant mainly as a comparative tool for different building materials and syste
18. user specified loading and geometry conditions The user specifies supported spans bay sizes and live loads and the model determines the depth or size of a building element structural floor element supported slab beam and column etc to satisfy the selected assembly design parameters These background structural sizing algorithms have been developed by the Athena Institute in partnership with structural engineers The IE4B material quantity calculations have been compared against detailed manual take offs from actual design documents and have been found to be generally within 1096 of typical engineered quantities exclusive of unique site considerations This is well within the LCA margin of error The IE4B has built in structural data in the form of sizing curves See Figure 3 below for an example of the sizing curves used by the IE4B This is the curve used to determine the weight of steel beam required as a function of bay size and span for a 50 psf live load For the purpose of developing algorithms in the IE curves of this type have been segmented into linear sections To be conservative the software then uses the beam sizing for the high end of the linear segment corresponding to the specified bay size and span Similar curves are used for different user selectable live loads 21 WF on Columns 50 psf 300 0 250 0 e 2000 m st E 20 lt S lt 30 s m2 30 lt S lt 40 m 150 0 4
19. 0 50 40 30 20 10 0 GHGs Fossil fuel Water Smog Respiratory Waste Contribution Floors Walls mRoof W Foundation W Partitions Figure 8 Example of contribution analysis 49 Use with green building programs Green Globes and LEED have points available to reward the use of LCA during design to yield a final building design with a lower footprint than an earlier design iteration These points are easier to achieve than they look We ve developed a guideline to help you get those points e Get our Guideline to LCA Credits in Green Building Programs In addition we have equipped the IE4B with features to make compliance easier e We have automated reporting features for Green Globes and LEED that will give your results in the right format and the right units for those programs e We have an automated IE4B tool compliance statement that will cover off your demonstration that you used the right tool data and method e All you need to do then is write up a narrative about your project and how LCA helped you Where to find more help Embedded help in the IE4B is available for all input dialogue boxes The same help can also be accessed from our stand along on line resource Help menu gt Help Topics Up to date help files can be found online at http calculatelca com software impact estimator help files Free download of the Impact Estimator for Buildings software plus user manuals video tutorials and FAQs http
20. 0 lt S lt 50 s 50 8 60 z 60 lt S lt 70 E 100 0 z 500 0 0 T T T 10 20 30 40 Bay Size ft Figure 3 Example of a structural sizing curve Note that the IE4B is not a design tool it is intended to quickly express a design in sufficient detail for the purpose of estimating the environmental effects of a building at the schematic or conceptual design stage As the design progresses through construction drawings users may augment these initial take off quantities with their own bill of materials to better reflect their design and site conditions Non structural materials Non structural and envelope material quantities are calculated based on the surface area of the specific assembly to which they are applied Users identify material layers applicable to each assembly For example when insulation and gypsum board materials are added to a wall assembly the user specifies type and thickness of those elements and the software determines the amount based on the area of the assembly Windows and doors Window material quantities are calculated based on the total area of openings as well as the number of openings both of which are indicated by the user for various assemblies For windows the software determines the total frame perimeter for each window either as a fixed or operating frame and the hardware and net glazing double or triple lite required for the type of window 22 selected As openings are specified
21. 4B database Currently the steel and aluminum databases are not comparable and hence any product comparisons should be avoided Life cycle assessment methodology report World Steel Association 2011 http www worldsteel org dms internetDocumentList bookshop LCA Methodology Report document LCA 20Methodology 20Report pdf 27 these LCI data into the IE4B and the data is reflected in all steel construction products in the software Seven new cradle to gate LCI profiles of North American semi finished steel plate hot rolled coil HRC cold rolled coil CRC hot dip galvanized steel HDG and finished rebar sections wire rod steel products were provided to Athena It should be noted that these data are constantly being reviewed and are deemed interim Updates to these data will be communicated as they become available These LCI dataset were used to model the cradle to grave LCI profiles for all Athena finished steel products such as hollow structural steel HSS steel tubing hot rolled sheet cold rolled sheet galvanized sheet galvanized decking galvanized stud rebar wide flange sections WFS open web joists OWJ nails welded wire mesh ladder wire screws nuts amp bolts SNB MBS primary frames secondary frames wall panels and roof panels In general worldsteel provides the semi finished steel data in two formats cradle to gate production and cradle to gate with end of life EoL recycling The latter
22. 9 e LDPE polymer portion reflect new 2010 Am Chemistry Council data e See US LCI database www nrel gov lci for data 17 Product Vintage Comments Air barrier 2010 e Added in 2007 based on ACC polypropylene profiles updated in 2010 Mineral Wool 2012 e Updated and expanded our fiberglass and mineral Fiberglass 2012 rock wool insulation materials Working with Polystyrene XPS and EPS 2007 NAIMA these data have now been stratified by R Polyisocyanurate glass foil faced 2011 value to better reflect the density of these materials Cellulose at various thicknesses Fibreglass Batt Fibreglass Loose Fill Mineral Wool Batt FG Batt R20 FG Batt R30 FG Batt R40 FG Batt R50 FG LF Open Blow R13 20 FG LF Open Blow R21 30 FG LF Open Blow R31 40 FG LF Open Blow R41 50 FG LF Open Blow R51 60 FG LF Cavity Fill R15 FG LF Cavity Fill R22 FG LF Cavity Fill R30 FG LF Cavity Fill R38 MW Batt R20 MW Batt R30 MW Batt R40 MW Batt R50 e Styrene polymer portion reflects new 2010 ACC data Polyiso reflects 2011 PIMA data e See US LCI database www nrel gov Ici Paint Products Basic latex solvent based and varnish Various for N America e Originally developed in 1998 and updated in 1999 Athena report available due to be updated Gypsum Board Products Various for N America Regular Fire rated Moisture resistant Gypsum fiber board Joint compound and paper t
23. Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings User Manual and Transparency Document Impact Estimator for Buildings v 5 September 2014 IE4B v 5 0 0105 Athena Sustainable Materials Institute www athenasmi org 2014 Athena Sustainable Materials Institute All rights reserved This report may be printed and distributed in its entirety in PDF or hardcopy format This document may not be altered or modified without permission This document can be found on the Athena software web site calculatelca com It will be periodically updated as required Athena Sustainable Materials Institute www athenasmi org Head Office US Office 119 Ross Avenue Suite 100 183 West Main Street Ottawa Ontario Kutztown Pennsylvania Canada K1Y ON6 USA 19530 T 613 729 9996 T 610 683 9066 F 613 729 9997 F 610 683 5733 E info athenasmi org E info athenasmi org Acknowledgements On going development and maintenance of the free Impact Estimator for Buildings is made possible by the generous support of Athena s funding network which includes the USDA FPInnovations the Cement Association of Canada the Canadian Wood Council the Canadian Precast Prestressed Concrete Institute the American Iron and Steel Institute the American Institute of Steel Construction Morrison Hershfield engineers Cornerstone Architecture BNIM Architects GAF and BCFII Disclaimer The Athena Institute provides no warranty for the software and does not assume any lia
24. LCA lingo scenario means an assumption about a future situation for example what might happen to building materials at the end of the building s service life 8 User Input Building Information Location Life expectancy Occupancy type Floor area Height Op Energy Information Annual operating energy from simulation or measurement Assembly Information Geometry Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings Summary Measure Results Fossil Fuel Use Global warming Acidification Human health particulate Eutrophication Ozone depletion Smog Absolute Results Energy Consumption Resource use Air emissions Water Emissions Land Emissions Bill of Materials Results Life cycle structure and enclosure material use Reports Dialog Report type Results type Assembly Input Dialogs Foundations Columnsand beams Front End Back End TRACI v2 1 Database LCIA methodology characterization factors Athena LCI Database Process LCI data for Building products Energy Transportation Scenario Databases Product service life Transportation Construction waste Construction energy Demolition energy End of life outcome Assembly material choice Floors Loading Roof Walls Material Information Material takeoffs Figure 1 How the Impact Estimator for Buildings works System requirements and revision history The IE4B is
25. M is a different kind of assembly type Instead of entering some dimensions to describe an assembly and have the IE4B calculate some material quantities the user can input any value he she wants for any material and it will be added to the bill of materials BOM The construction waste factor for each material will also be added to the BOM e g if you enter 1 m3 of concrete 5 waste factor in EBM there will be 1 05 m3 added to the BOM This allows the user to customize assemblies that have been developed using the IE4B automated features If for instance you think that the IE4B has overdesigned your concrete beam you could adjust for that in EBM by adding a negative amount of concrete so that the BOM reflects the actual amount of concrete in that assembly 38 To enter a material select it from the Materials drop down box You can use the Search String or Material Type boxes in order to filter the list in Materials Choose a Material and click Add and the material will appear in the table then enter an Amount The Net Amount will show the total that will be added to the BOM including the construction waste factor Units can be toggled between Si and Imperial When you ve added all your materials click OK and a new Extra Materials assembly group G and an Extra Basic Materials assembly A will appear in the tree under your project level P One note there can only be one entry per material you cannot add a material twice For exam
26. System Roof 20 Wood trusses with steel web and structural wood sheathing decking Solid wood joists with structural wood sheathing decking IE4B background activity Multiple calculations happen in the IEAB background engine The most significant ones are explained in detail below Material quantity calculations The IE4B operates on a bill of materials the software needs to know what types and quantities of materials are in the building Users can directly specify these quantities either through the extra basic materials dialog or by importing a bill of materials from a CAD or BIM program both of these approaches are explained in another section More commonly IE4B users don t yet have bill of material information and they will allow the software to calculate material quantities for them In a nutshell when the user creates an assembly using the IE4B dialog boxes the software determines the associated bill of materials using a series of background calculations As more assemblies are selected the software aggregates the bill of materials to the whole building level The bill of materials is dynamically updated as you modify and add more assemblies and materials to your project This section explains how the IE4B calculates material quantities Structural materials The IE4B calculates the amount of structural material required in walls floors roofs and column and beam systems by applying sizing algorithms to
27. ape e Originally developed in 1997 e Regular and fire rated updated in 2012 e Original Athena report available Gypsum Association report confidential Roofing Products Various for N America 3 tab shingles organic 3 tab shingles glass 15 and 30 organ felt Type Ill and IV glass felt Mineral roll roofing e Originally developed in 2000 and 2001 e Athena report available Clay tile Concrete tile e Originally developed in 1998 e Adjusted and updated for US by substituting US 18 Product Vintage Comments BUR organ felt based BUR glass felt based Roofing asphalt GAF TPO Membrane white PVC Membrane EPDM membrane black amp white Modified Bitumen cement profile electricity grids and transportation distances 2008 e Athena report available e Originally developed in 2001 e Adjusted and updated for US electricity grids and transportation distances e Athena reports available e EPDM black updated in 2009 and EPDM white added e PVC updated in 2011 e GAF TPO 5 products added in 2013 Windows Various for N America Unclad Wood Frame Double and Triple 2013 e Frame and glazing data and quantity take offs pane updated in 2013 with the exception of aluminum PVC Frame Double and Triple pane 2013 frame awaiting new aluminum data Vinyl Clad Wood Frame Double and 2013 e Originally developed
28. approach is characterized as a closed material loop recycling methodology which follows ISO 14044 2006 section 4 3 4 3 3 a which describes the allocation procedures for closed loop material recycling This system expansion methodology is also known as and is often referred to as the avoided burden method The general life cycle equation for this closed material loop recycling methodology is applied as shown by the equation below LCI for 1 kg of steel product including recycling X RR S x Y x Xpr Xre Where X is the cradle to gate LCI of the steel product RR S is the net amount of scrap produced from the system RR is the end of life recycling rate of the steel product S is the scrap input to the steelmaking process this is the net scrap consumed in the steelmaking process and does not include internal scrap Home scrap is considered when the scrap comes from a process which occurs on the steelmaking site but does not contribute to any of the production stages of the product Y is the process yield of the EAF i e 1 kg scrap is required to produce 1 kg steel Xpr is the LCI for 10096 primary metal production This is a theoretical value of steel slab made in the BOF route assuming 096 scrap input Xre is the LCI for 10096 secondary metal production from scrap in the EAF assuming 10096 scrap input As per worldsteel recycling methodology a credit or burden is given for the net scrap that is
29. ases on materials systems and processes The Athena LCI database is comprised of ISO 14040 14044 compliant unit process LCI data e g concrete manufacturing LCI results per m concrete related to basic materials building products and components fuel use and transportation The database is regionally sensitive taking into consideration manufacturing technology transportation and electricity grid differences as well as recycled content differences for products produced in various regions Athena databases are typically built from the ground up using actual mill or engineered process models New regions are added to the software as our resources allow All data is generally less than 10 years old The Athena Institute has developed data not only for building materials and products but also for energy use transportation construction and demolition processes including on site construction of a building s assemblies maintenance repair and replacement effects through the operating life and demolition and disposal Assumptions and uncertainties are inherent to any LCA calculation In our opinion some of the uncertainties have balancing effects on the results so that the end result is still often within an acceptable margin of error In our opinion LCA results with the IE4B should be viewed with a 15 margin of error perspective In other words we consider a comparative impact measure difference of 15 or less between two design scenarios as be
30. associated with modelling manufacturing process stages One example where process CO emissions are significant is in the production of cement calcination of limestone Because the Impact Estimator uses data developed by a detailed life cycle modelling approach all relevant process emissions of greenhouse gases are included in the resultant global warming potential index Human Health HH Particulate Particulate matter of various sizes PM 9 and PM 5 have a considerable impact on human health The EPA has identified particulates from diesel fuel combustion as the number one cause of human health deterioration due to its impact on the human respiratory system asthma bronchitis acute pulmonary disease etc It should be mentioned that particulates are an important environmental output of plywood product production and need to be traced and addressed The Institute used TRACI s Human Health Particulates from Mobile Sources characterization factor on an equivalent PM s basis in our final set of impact indicators 46 Ozone Depletion Potential ODP Stratospheric ozone depletion potential accounts for impacts related to the reduction of the protective ozone layer within the stratosphere caused by emissions of ozone depleting substances CFCs HFCs and halons The ozone depletion potential of each of the contributing substances is characterized relative to CFC 11 with the final impact indicator indicating mass e g kg of equival
31. ation potential The IE4B additionally reports various resource uses such as primary energy and water and emissions to air water and land The IE4B helps designers reduce embodied impacts of buildings Buildings already have a large environmental footprint even before the lights are turned on for the first time Embodied environmental effects include the resource consumption and air land water emissions to make transport install maintain replace and remove all of the products used in a building This part of a building s footprint is often ignored in favour of a focus on operating energy or is inadequately addressed by design measures or product choices that sound good but have no applicable performance data that can be related to the actual building life cycle footprint The IE4B substitutes meaningful environmental impact metrics for much of the current guesswork about sustainable design decisions The software is also the only way to properly consider embodied versus operating impacts When more materials are added to a building in order to reduce operating energy the environmental impact of those additional materials needs to be factored in to the total environmental impact math Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts TRACI is a life cycle impact assessment methodology developed by the US EPA and the most commonly used method in North America 5 While operating energy use is critically im
32. bility for the accuracy completeness or usefulness of the software About the Athena Institute The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute is a non profit consultancy and think tank in life cycle assessment LCA for the built environment The North American pioneer and only specialist in construction sector LCA the Athena Institute works with sustainability leaders in product manufacturing building design construction and green rating programs to enable smaller footprints in the production and consumption of materials buildings and infrastructure Athena s common good work includes development and maintenance of a large life cycle inventory database on construction materials and processes and free LCA software tools for architects and engineers Table of Contents eu p E 5 What the software is all about ssesssesssseseseeseseeeene enne nennen en nnn en nnnetnitsennts entes eet t en nnte innen 5 How the software WOPKS cccescesssceeeeeeeseeceseecssneceaeeseaeeseaneceaeecsanesesaeeseaeeseaeeceacecesaeseeaeeseaeeeeeeseaeees 7 System requirements and revision history cesses eene eene enne nennen nnns ener 9 CA TOT ie see itunes mde min M m ite T 10 Getting started as a new User ccccssccssssseccessssecesssseecessnseecesssseecesssseeesesseeceseaseecseusecesesueeeessaseseesnas 11 What s under the hood ccessceseseeeesceceseecececeeneeeeaeeseaeeceaeeceaaeceeaeeeeaeecsacessaeeceaeeseaee
33. calculatelca com More information on LCA and additional resources http www athenasmi ori 50
34. cycle inventory LCI data for energy consumption resource use and air water and land emissions All tables and graphs can be exported to Excel and PDF graphs are exported to Excel as pictures not as Excel charts The heart of the results are included in the Detailed Summary Measures Table by Life Cycle Stage which presents the results of a project by the life cycle stages conforming to the EN 15804 15978 system boundary and reporting format modules A to D A partial picture of the table modules A amp B only is shown in Figure 7 Detailed Summary Measure Table By Life Cycle Stages Project Test Building 1 PRODUCT CONSTRUCTION PROCESS USE A1 to A3 A4 amp AS B2 B4 amp B6 Construction Operational Installation Replacement Replacement Energy Use Summary Measure Unit Manufacturing Transport Total Process Transport Total Manufacturing Transport Total Total Global Warming Potential kg CO2 eq 9 48E 04 9 41E 03 1 04E 05 8 26E 03 1 29E 04 2 11E 04 3 07E 05 6 90E 04 3 37E 06 3 75E 06 Acidification Potential kg SO2 eq 5 63E 02 9 10E 01 6 54E 02 7 26E 01 1 33E 02 2 05E 02 1 47E 03 6 86E 02 8 92E 03 1 11E 04 HH Particulate kg PM2 5 eq 3 40E 02 5 16E 00 3 45E 02 1 79E 01 6 71E 00 2 46E 01 8 68E 02 3 68E 01 6 21E 02 1 53E 03 Eutrophication Potential kg N eq 1 49E 01 6 19E 00 2 10E 01 3 74E 00 8 98E 00 1 27E 01 1 01E 04 4 65E 01 4 16E 02 1 05E 04 Ozone Depletion Potential kg CFC 11 e
35. ded to your predefined envelope library and can be quickly added to subsequent assemblies by choosing it from the Predefined Envelope Systems drop down box then clicking Add When you ve finished adding envelope materials click OK and the new assembly will appear in the tree under the project level P as a Foundations assembly group G and an assembly A Any subsequent Foundation assemblies will appear as a new A under the same G level If you wish to modify the assembly right click and choose modify or double click on the assembly name at the A level in the tree and the dialog will open and you can make changes to the assembly As with all assembly dialogs there is a help file specific to that assembly click the Help button at the bottom of each dialog box e Watch a six minute video demonstration on adding a foundation assembly 02 Adding Assemblies Foundations e Read the help file about how to add a foundation Click gt Add or Modify Assemblies gt Foundations Adding walls Right click on the Project level P in the tree hover over Add Assembly and Walls and click Custom Walls Enter an assembly name and the length and height of the wall Then double click on one of the Available Assembly Components wall types e Concrete Block Wall e Concrete Cast In Place Wall e Concrete Tilt Up Wall e Curtain Wall e Insulated Concrete Form Wall e Steel Stud Wall e Wood Stud Wall e Structural Insulated Panels e Metal B
36. diagram of software inputs outputs and processes First general information is collected building location building type area height and service life These factors will trigger specific internal calculations For example geographic region is important appropriate electricity grids transportation modes and distances and product manufacturing technologies are applied depending on the building location Next the building model is developed by creating a series of assemblies walls roofs and so forth Users quickly describe building assemblies through dialogue boxes that request simple information like bay sizes structural systems and loads the software then applies structural algorithms to calculate a bill of materials Users have flexibility to add or subtract materials as needed Alternatively users can import their own bill of materials from any CAD program When the model is complete users can generate results in a variety of categories and formats A number of background calculations and database access activities are put in action depending on what results are requested by the user Scenario databases are accessed to quantify all life cycle material and energy use The Athena LCI Database is accessed to calculate a life cycle inventory And the TRACI methodology is applied to perform life cycle impact assessment The software reports footprint data for the following environmental impact measures consistent with the latest US EPA
37. ding wood steel and or concrete It is assumed that the envelope materials are demolished during the structural demolition but have little influence on the demolition energy use The IE4B then calculates the bill of materials at the building s end of life and determines the final disposition of these materials The IE4B assumes that materials commonly landfilled today will continue to be landfilled and those currently recycled or re used will continue to be recycled and reused All environmental burdens associated with materials leaving the system boundary are a charge to the next use For the materials assumed to be land filled the software takes account of the energy use and related emissions associated with transportation to the landfill assuming typical distances to landfill for the region The model then applies a landfill operations process to the mass of materials entering the landfill Metal Recycling In 2011 the World Steel Association worldsteel completed its third iteration of its global LCI dataset covering 15 steel products In 2013 the latest North American regional steel LCI data were made available to the Athena Institute by the Steel Recycling Institute SRI and worldsteel in cooperation with the American Iron and Steel Institute AISI The Athena Institute has integrated 8 Currently steel only Application of this method to aluminum is pending 7 This method is awaiting application to aluminum products supported in the IE
38. ds to the proliferation of aquatic photosynthetic plant life This may lead to a chain of further consequences ranging from foul odours to the death of fish The calculated result is expressed on an equivalent mass of nitrogen N basis Global Warming Potential GWP Global warming potential is a reference measure The methodology and science behind the GWP calculation can be considered one of the most accepted LCIA categories GWP will be expressed on an equivalency basis relative to CO in kg or tonnes CO equivalent Carbon dioxide is the common reference standard for global warming or greenhouse gas effects All other greenhouse gases are referred to as having a CO equivalence effect which is simply a multiple of the greenhouse potential heat trapping capability of carbon dioxide This effect has a time horizon due to the atmospheric reactivity or stability of the various contributing gases over time As yet no consensus has been reached among policy makers about the most appropriate time horizon for greenhouse gas calculations The International Panel on Climate Change100 year time horizon figures have been used here as a basis for the equivalence index CO Equivalent kg CO kg CH kg x 23 N20 kg x 300 While greenhouse gas emissions are largely a function of energy combustion some products also emit greenhouse gases during the processing of raw materials Process emissions often go unaccounted for due to the complexity
39. duct Two has other product advantages it would likely be the better choice and a designer would look elsewhere for environmental improvements in the building The software can be used at any point during design but is particularly useful early in the process Focusing attention on environmental footprint during conceptual design will yield the biggest impact because it is during this early stage when key decisions are made that affect a large proportion of the building s ultimate mass The IE4B is not a scoring or rating program it just delivers the performance numbers Use it to inform design as it progresses from concept to development to construction documents the early results can be a benchmark to beat through subsequent design refinement decisions The IE4B covers a wide range of building types and construction systems The IE4B can model constructed works at any scale whole building building element construction assembly and building product It can be used for all types of buildings residential commercial and industrial and construction projects new construction renovation and refurbishment The geographic coverage of the tool is the United States and Canada Environmental profiles of the building products and operating energy fuels typically reflect industry average practice although brand name products from specific manufacturing facilities are added to the databases at the discretion of individual manufacturers A
40. e for each unique material name of UOM in the export file The most common units of measure are included in a UOM mapping library but users can add to this library any custom units or conversion factors Once all the rows are mapped you can import the list into the EBM assembly and you have the option to include or not include the construction waste factors for each material A summary of the mappings is available as a text file for your records All material or UOM mappings are saved in the library so the next time you try to import a BOM file any materials and UOMs of the same name will be mapped automatically If you use the same nomenclature in your CAD program from project to project the mapping step will be greatly reduced as you will only need to map any new material names or UOMs After some experience with the IE4B you will become familiar with what is expected and with UOMs in particular you can do some of the conversions in Excel if you wish before importing the file The mapping libraries can also be copied so that another user in the same organization can use them to avoid having to remap material names and UOMs Detailed step by step instructions are available by clicking the Help button at the bottom of the dialog box or you can watch a two part video demonstration at 10 amp 11 Bill of Materials Import Parts 1 amp 2 Inputting operating energy data The IE4B is not an energy simulation tool but you can enter the results o
41. e products is included with regional specificity Electricity supply is also an important consideration and the software supports regional locations in various ways First it considers whether a region is a self sufficient generator of electricity or whether it draws electricity from the larger interconnected grid For instance a location such as Montreal is in the Quebec electricity grid and Quebec is a net exporter of electricity to the Eastern North American grid Since Quebec is a self sufficient generator of electricity the IE4B uses the Quebec grid for electricity use in that region For other regional locations some of the electricity may come from the larger interconnected grid in which case the software uses data from both the region and from the interconnected grid For example the region represented by Atlanta is in the Eastern North America grid intertie More traditionally Atlanta belongs to the Southeast Electric Reliability Grid SERC Georgia is not a self sufficient generator of electricity Consequently a composite of the Georgia grid and Eastern North America grid intertie are proportionally combined and used by the model to represent the electricity use in the region This approach to electrical grids is taken when calculating electricity related environmental burdens associated with the manufacturing of basic materials products and components used in a building as well as electricity used in the construction and maintenance
42. e service life the wood products undergo typical average end of life treatment processes that includes landfilling 80 combustion 10 and recycling 10 Landfill Of the wood that is landfilled 90 are sent to anaerobic landfills and 10 are sent to aerobic landfills i e dumps 35 All materials that are landfilled were assumed to cause non GHG emissions from the use of diesel fueled heavy machinery Anaerobic Landfill The anaerobic landfill is accounted as a first order decay with a 496 annual decay rate applied to the 2396 of wood that decomposes The carbon in the decayed wood is converted to both methane and carbon dioxide in equal portions 5096 to each A portion of the methane that is generated 1096 is oxidized to carbon dioxide before it reaches the landfill surface The fate of this landfill gas is dependent on the presence of landfill gas capture equipment and its recovery efficiency a Default parameter values from National Council for Air and Stream Improvement NCASI Carbon Storage Tool si Sanitary landfill model as published in ecoinvent database http www doka ch 13 WasteTreatmentGeneral pdf 2 Landfill model parameters from USEPA Documentation for Landfilling Used in the Waste Reduction Model WARM Version 12 Documentation 9 http epa gov epawaste conserve tools warm pdfs Landfilling pdf 32 e Landfill Gas Capture in Place 82 of the landfill gas generated in the anaerobic landfill occurs in th
43. e the best way to do this is by making the IE4B as accessible as possible To us this means keeping it free How do we do it Through the generous support of our funding network our partners supporters and members In particular we acknowledge the contributions of Morrison Hershfield our collaborative partners in developing the IE4B It s expensive for us to perform on going development and maintenance of the IE4B and its underlying databases and release an update twice a year We never have quite enough funds to move as quickly as we d like to tackle the wish list please consider joining our family of supporters http www athenasmi org membership overview How the software works The IE4B is a desktop software application that runs on most PC platforms It can also be accessed by Macintosh users via our server or can be run on a Macintosh with Windows capability Download the software or learn about Mac access by heading to our software web site www calculatelca com The IE4B has the complex life cycle databases and methodology in the background meaning the user need only address inputs about the physical nature of the building The software is easy to learn and easy to use A building is described through various dialogue boxes with context specific pop up help available for each one In addition we offer short video demonstrations and we have an extensive FAQ section all accessible at www calculatelca com See Figure 1 for a
44. ent CFC 11 Photochemical Ozone Formation Potential Smog Under certain climatic conditions air emissions from industry and transportation can be trapped at ground level where in the presence of sunlight they produce photochemical smog a symptom of photochemical ozone creation potential POCP While ozone is not emitted directly it is a product of interactions of volatile organic compounds VOCs and nitrogen oxides NOx The smog indicator is expressed on a mass of equivalent O3 basis Total Primary Energy Consumption Total Primary Energy Consumption is reported in mega joules MJ Embodied primary energy includes all energy direct and indirect used to transform or transport raw materials into products and buildings including inherent energy contained in raw or feedstock materials that are also used as common energy sources For example natural gas used as a raw material in the production of various plastic polymer resins In addition the Impact Estimator captures the indirect energy use associated with processing transporting converting and delivering fuel and energy and energy plus the operating energy Non renewable Energy Consumption Non renewable Energy Consumption is reported in mega joules MJ and is a subset of Total Primary Energy Consumption and includes all the fossil fuels and nuclear Fossil Fuel Consumption Fossil Fuel Consumption is reported in mega joules MJ and is a subset of Total Primary Energy C
45. es BOF EAF and market recovery rates 15 Product Vintage Comments Wide Flange sections recycling rates See section 3 9 1 for a brief Open web joists description of the methodology Reinforcing bar Hollow structural steel Steel tubing Hot rolled sheet Cold rolled sheet Galvanized sheet MBS wall and roof cladding Residential cladding Commercial cladding Galvanized decking Galvanized studs Wood Products specified on a volume basis Softwood lumber kiln dried 2012 e Canadian regional data updated in 2012 CORRIM data for US reflects PNW Inland West NC and SE production 2012 e Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile e See Corrim org for US reports Plywood 2012 e Canadian regional BC only data originally developed in 1993 updated in 2006 and 2012 e Resource harvesting profile updated in 2012 e Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile e CORRIM data for US reflects PNW and SE production in 2012 e See Corrim org for US reports Oriented Strand board 2012 e Canadian regional data originally developed in 1993 updated in 2006 and 2012 e Resource harvesting profile updated in 2012 e Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile e CORRIM data for US reflects PNW and SE production in 2012 e See Corrim org for US reports Laminated Veneer Lumber 2012 e Canadian regional data originally developed in 1993 u
46. f an energy simulation and the IE4B will calculate the environmental effects of that energy use If you double click on the project level P in the tree and click on Operating Energy Consumption at the bottom of the Modify Project dialog the Building Operating Energy Consumption dialog will appear Here you can enter the annual operating energy amounts as calculated in an energy simulation for electricity natural gas LPG propane Heavy Fuel Diesel and Gasoline If your energy totals are in MJ or Btu there is a tool available to convert these into physical quantities of each fuel The effects of electricity will change depending on the project location while the other fuels are based on continental data and the effects will no change from location to location e Watch a five minute video demonstration on entering operating energy 07 Operating Energy e Read the help file about how to enter operating energy Click Creating a new Project gt Set Operating Energy Consumption 40 Work arounds The Impact Estimator is flexible enough that users can manipulate their inputs to accommodate circumstances not easily approached using the built in features Bill of materials adjustments The IE4B produces a bill of materials as a result of user inputs in the assembly dialog boxes Material quantities can be modified if needed to better match the project Follow these steps Change the project s Building Life Expectancy to 1 year b P
47. h half of the environmental burden of the window Using stucco as an example we can further illustrate some of the environmental impacts arising from its repair or replacement The table below demonstrates a typical stucco repair and its environmental impact for two different regions Stucco is rarely replaced in its entirety although it is commonly over clad with a different material such as PVC or wood For the purpose of the software we have developed an average frequency of exterior wall cladding replacement for each urban centre supported by the software under the assumption that the stucco is removed and replaced See Table 5 below Table 5 Example of a replacement schedule STUCCO Description Removal or overcladding of 100 of the stucco siding Single Family Low Rise rental High Rise rental Owner Occupied Institutional Commercial Industrial Replacement Cycle MASS OF MATERIALS DISPOSITION Maia p ume Rexie Other Base coal iem 300 10 Finish coat em eo t0 PT Expanded mela mesh Fasteners 0 028 028 Building paper 15s asphalt 2 295 400 impregnated felt Operating energy The IE4B can include operating energy in the LCA results Operating energy consumption by fuel type electricity natural gas fuel oil etc is calculated by other means such as with energy 26 simulation software and then fuel figures are ente
48. he final product transportation to the building site construction installation process construction installation scrap collection processing and transport to steel mills and the LCI value of construction scrap as per worldsteel methodology Use stage No burden or credit is given to the steel products during the use stage Deconstruction stage included as part of EoL Includes deconstruction process deconstruction scrap collection processing and transport to steel mills and the LCI value of the net scrap as per worldsteel methodology For example the cradle to grave environmental profile of galvanized studs consists of the cradle to gate profile of North American HDG steel fabrication processes for turning HDG steel into galvanized studs e g stamping cutting and roll forming of HDG sheet into steel studs final transportation of galvanized studs to the building site construction process e g steel stud wall assembly steel scrap collection with processing and delivery back to steel plants as and where it occurs manufacturing construction and EoL and the LCI value of the fabrication construction and deconstruction scrap as per woldsteel recycling methodology Steel Database User Guidance As a user of the IE4B software when interpreting the summary impact indicator results for steel products assemblies you may want to refer to project table reports showing results by life cycle stage This is the best view of how
49. he stored carbon at the end of the product life cycle are then accounted similarly to other types of greenhouse gas emissions i e positive GWP The three standards differ somewhat in the temporal boundary for the emissions accounting PAS 2050 applies a 100 year cut off while ISO TC 14067 and the WRI Product Protocol employ no upper time boundary We have taken a hybrid approach by applying the 100 year cut off as specified in PAS 2050 but ignore the temporary storage of biogenic carbon during the product service life This means that the 100 year cut off begins after the products have reached the end of their service life as opposed to the time of manufacturing This is consistent with PAS 2050 in that it allows the accounting to extend beyond the 100 year cut off if significant emissions occur beyond that period and also approximates the permanent emissions if no upper boundary were applied Sequestration Model To approximate the emissions that occur at the end of the wood product life cycle we developed a model that incorporates the various processes that occur This model was also incorporated into a spreadsheet tool that can be used to calculate carbon sequestration impacts in accordance with FPInnovations wood products Product Category Rules PCR This means the IE4B biogenic carbon accounting method is consistent with the PCR for North American wood products Figure 5 illustrates the flow of wood at the end of life through the various
50. htly change the outcome Both sets of results are correct within the context of their own underlying data methodology and assumptions But the results are not comparable Where to look for improvements Typically IE4B results help a user identify hot spots in the building in other words the part of the building or the time period in the building s life which is causing the largest impacts Hot spots can then be targeted for improved environmental performance by modifying the design or the materials This is the best approach to get measurable improvements Tackling parts of the building that have relatively little impact won t get you much effect in the overall footprint The IE4B reports help you find hot spots this is also known as contribution analysis See Figure 8 for an illustration of contribution analysis Here LCA results are shown with proportional contribution to each one by various building assemblies If we are interested in reducing embodied energy of this example building we will notice that the walls are the biggest contributor to fossil fuel consumption We ll therefore want to direct our attention to the walls for example we might consider reducing the total area of walls or we can drill deeper into the wall results if we want to explore different wall design and material options Note that the IE4B currently does not generate graphs like this create this by exporting your results to Excel 100 80 70 6
51. in 1998 and updated in 1999 Triple pane e PVC polymer portion to reflect new 2010 ACC data Metal Clad Wood Frame Double and 2013 e See US LCI database www nrel gov lci for data Triple pane e Added fiberglass frame in 2012 Aluminum Frame Double and Triple 2002 e Updated quantity take offs in 2010 for PVC and pane wood windows Double and Triple pane glazing Hard 2013 Tin and Soft Silver or Tin Coated Air and Argon Filled Organization of inputs by building assembly The IE4B thinks of a building as a collection of assemblies Users create each assembly by selecting a basic structural system and then adding cladding insulation and so forth This allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility and means the IE4B can address the vast majority of construction systems Table 4 IE4B assembly categories and structural systems Foundations Concrete footings perimeter and or column Concrete slab on grade Walls Exterior infill load bearing and Interior non load bearing Wood stud walls with or without plywood or OSB sheathing Steel stud walls with or without plywood or OSB sheathing Concrete block Concrete cast in place Curtain wall Concrete tilt up 19 Insulated concrete form Metal Building System Walls Structural Insulated Panels Beams and Columns Wood Column Hollow Structural Steel column Cast in place Concrete beam and or c
52. indows e B2030 Exterior Doors e B3010 Roof Coverings e B3020 Roof Openings C1010 Partitions e C1020 Interior Doors e C2010 Stair Construction Impact assessment The IE4B creates a cradle to grave life cycle inventory LCI profile for a whole building over a user selected building service life The inventory results comprise a long list of highly differentiated flows from and to nature in the form of energy and raw material flows as well as emissions to air water and land The IE4B supports the following midpoint life cycle impact assessment measures based on the US EPA Tool for Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts TRACI and in accordance with ISO 21930 31 e Global Warming Potential CO equivalent mass e Acidification Air Potential SO equivalent mass e Human Health Particulate PM 2 5 equivalent mass e Eutrophication air amp water Potential N equivalent mass e Smog air Potential O equivalent mass e Ozone Depletion air Potential CFC 11 equivalent e Total Primary Energy Consumption MJ e Non Renewable Energy Consumption MJ e Fossil Fuel Consumption MJ TRACI v2 1 2012 14 Underlying LCI data The heart of the IE4B is the Athena life cycle inventory database which contains the most detailed highest quality and regionalized construction data available in North America We spend a lot of time and resources on updating and expanding our datab
53. information module to Excel Produce Material results in a separate file with the same building information e g location height etc input the quantity of proxy material s into the Extra Basic Materials input dialog Export the desired results by Life Cycle Stage to Excel Add Material A1 A3 A2 A3 A4 A5 C1 C2 C4 information module results to the corresponding Project information module results 5 If the material undergoes replacement during the building service life replacement effects shall be calculated according to the following procedure a Calculate the number of replacements the proxy material s undergoes Number of replacements Building service life Product service life Product service life b Sum Material A1 A3 A5 C1 and C4 information module results multiply the total by the number of replacements from step a and add to the Project B4a information module results c Sum Material A2 A4 and C2 information module results multiply the total by the number of replacements from step a and add to the Project B4b information module results Reused materials While the IE4B does not currently support modeling reused materials here is a procedure for estimating these effects Essentially it entails removing the effects of the material s raw resource extraction and manufacturing from the total life cycle effects A1 A2 A3 including when the material undergoes periodic replacement Follow these steps
54. ing equal or insignificant See Table 3 for the structural and envelope materials supported by the IE4B and the vintage of the LCI data for each one Additional LCI data available in the IE4B not listed in this table includes a large number of raw materials such as aggregates recycled concrete aggregate and so forth Table 3 IE4B product LCI database Product Vintage Comments Concrete products Ready Mix Concrete 3000 4000 9000 CDN 2005 e Canadian regional cement data updated from psi with various high volume fly ash US 2004 original 1993 data pre set concrete designs remain levels average 25 amp 35 specified unchanged Users may specify their own unique on a volume basis concrete mix designs by component material Concrete Masonry Units CMU CDN 2005 e Added Portland limestone cement based on 2007 specified on a number of units basis US 2004 LCA study Precast products CDN 2011 e US data reflects PCA design mixes and average US 2008 cement for the US Mortar specified on a volume basis CDN 2005 e Institute report available US 2004 e US cement profile available at US LCI database www nrel gov Ici Steel Products specified on a mass or N America e All profiles updated for steel construction products area basis 2010 based on worldsteel avoided burden Nails methodology approach Data have been Welded wire mesh regionalized to reflect N America steel production Screws nut bolts technologi
55. ing residential Metal cladding commercial MBS roof and wall cladding 2013 e Roll forming data from client report 2011 e Base steel sheet values updated in 2013 Common clay brick modular and standard 2009 e Canadian clay brick data first developed in 1998 Adjusted for US by substituting electricity grids and transportation distances e Athena report available e Data updated in 2009 Concrete brick and split faced block 2005 e Canadian concrete brick data first developed in 1998 e Split faced block updated in 2005 e Adjusted for US by substituting US cement profile electricity grids and transportation distances e Institute report available Stucco over porous surface and metal mesh 2005 e Canadian data developed in 2001 e Cement portion updated in 2005 e Adjusted for US by incorporating US cement profile and substituting electricity grids base fuel use and transportation distances e Athena report available PVC vinyl siding 2010 e Originally developed in 1998 and updated in 2009 e PVC polymer portion to reflect new 2010 ACC data e See US LCI database www nrel gov lci for data Fiber Cement Siding 2009 e Originally developed in 2009 Natural Stone Insulation and barrier products 2009 Various for NA e Developed in 2009 from a secondary data source Polyethylene vapour barrier 2010 e Originally developed in 1998 and updated in 199
56. is in alignment with North American standard practice and is consistent with global best practices We regularly update our methodology as required to maintain compliance with ISO EN and North American standards Scope and system boundary The IE4B can model constructed works at any scale whole building building element construction assembly building product and can be used for various types of buildings residential commercial industrial and construction projects new construction renovation refurbishment The geographic coverage of the tool is the United States and Canada The IE4B conforms to the EN 15804 15978 system boundary and reporting format Table 1 summarizes which of the EN information modules IM are currently covered by the program and the processes accounted for by each While it is expected that some of the missing information 12 modules will be incorporated into the program as data and funding become available its present capacity is sufficient for most current needs including compliance with the LCA requirements in all North American green building codes and rating systems Table 1 IE4B system boundary capacity Information Module Supports Processes Included A1 Raw material supply Y Primary resource harvesting and mining A2 Transport Y All transportation of materials up to manufacturing plant gate A3 Manufacturing Y Manufacture of raw materials into products Transportatio
57. ll data is specific to the region where the building is located this is an important aspect to the LCA calculations and is a distinguishing quality feature of the Athena databases IE4B modeling capacity currently encompasses a building s structure enclosure and interior partitions and doors Furnishing most finishes conveyance systems and mechanical and electrical equipment are not currently included Building products can be combined in various ways to model the vast majority of construction assemblies commonly in use in North America an estimated 1 500 combinations using the IE4B built in elements The LCA modeling can also optionally include the operating energy use of the building energy use is calculated using other means and fuel consumption results are entered in the IE4B which will then include the associated LCA impacts of fuel use in the results The IE4B delivers actionable results Users can view data in a number of different ways The reporting functions make it easy to find environmental hot spots and to compare up to five design options simultaneously When using the software users may have two or more building designs already in mind or they may start with a baseline design and then look at various ways of improving that design s environmental performance All this for free The Athena Institute has a mandate to bring LCA to the construction sector for a verifiably reduced footprint of the built environment We believ
58. lts Table by Life Cycle Stage sseessssssseseeeeeeennne ener 45 Example of contribution analysis sesssssssssssssesseeseeeenene ethernet enne 49 Overview This document explains the inner workings of the Impact Estimator for Buildings IE4B including the underlying databases and methodology and provides detailed instruction on how to use the software View this document on line for maximum access to the user help features Find it at http www calculatelca com What the software is all about The IE4B is a software tool that delivers environmental life cycle based performance information about buildings It provides decision support for building design teams who wish to include environmental data among the factors assessed during design The IEAB is a simplified LCA tool Life cycle assessment LCA is the science behind the IE4B and is typically practiced by experts The IE4B software package is an LCA based tool that has been developed specifically for architects engineers and sustainable design consultants The tool provides access to sophisticated life cycle inventory data and life cycle assessment methods without requiring advanced LCA skills The IE4B reports results for the following environmental impact measures consistent with the US EPA TRACI methodology global warming potential acidification potential human health particulate ozone depletion potential smog potential and eutrophic
59. ms the site prep for any comparative designs will likely be similar for each design Similarly utility hook ups which will depend mainly on their proximity to existing services will be the same for any comparative designs and therefore will not affect the relative differences between those designs Also not included in on site construction effects are transportation of workers or equipment capital equipment or water use during construction Maintenance and replacement The IE4B accounts for the use phase impacts of materials which is primarily the periodic replacement of products whose service lives are shorter than the service life of the building The choice of expected service life type of building and where relevant whether the building is owner occupied or rental turns on effects specific to the maintenance and replacement for envelope materials such as roofing cladding and window systems Maintenance and replacement effects of building materials exposed to the elements or to wear e g asphalt shingles wood windows gypsum board etc include the following o Material usage including quantity take offs on a square meter basis for maintenance and replacement of products and components Typical frequency of maintenance for each of the urban centers supported in the software o Energy use for maintenance activities Typical transportation mode and distance by region from the distributor to the site for the relative components o On
60. n of materials from manufacturing plant to site and A4 Transport Y 3 construction equipment to site M Construction equipment energy use and A1 A4 C1 C2 C4 IM effects A5 Construction installation process Y of construction waste B1 Installed product in use N n a Painted surfaces are maintained i e repainted but no annual B2 Maintenance Partial j j maintenance aspects are included B3 Repair N n a A1 A5 IM effects of replacement materials and C1 C2 C4 IM effects B4 Replacement Y of replaced materials B5 Refurbishment N n a B6 Operational energy use Y Energy primary extraction production delivery and use B7 Operational water use N n a C1 De construction demolition Y Demolition equipment energy use C2 Transport Y Transportation of materials from site to landfill C3 Waste Processing N n a C4 Disposal Y Disposal facility equipment energy use and landfill site effects D Benefits and loads beyond the R Y Carbon sequestration and steel recycling system boundary The software does not take account of site development issues such as land disturbance eco system alteration and destruction of vegetation Such effects are very site specific and the intent of the software is to focus on the building design issues as opposed to these site specific issues Object of assessment IE4B modeling capacity currently encompasses the structure enclosure partitions and operating energy use of a constructed work as summari
61. nt uniformity between IE4B and environmental product declaration EPD results it is for this reason that we prefer the incorporation of EPD information into our software such that data gaps can be filled and structure made consistent with the tool We have developed some rules regarding the combination of EPD data with IE4B results 44 Results shall not be combined if the EPD reflects industry wide results and the material or fuel in question is available in the IE4B Results may be combined provided all of the following conditions are met a The EPD has not expired b The EPD is applicable to the project location c The impact categories reported in the EPD have been characterized according to TRACI 2 1 methodology d The IE4B and EPD results have the same system boundary i e the same information modules e Replacement information module B4 effects can be properly evaluated for the assessment study period Viewing results and generating reports Results are produced by clicking on the Reports menu which opens a dialog box from which all available reports can be selected For individual reports the user can select either Table or Graph format either Summary Measures or Absolute Value results and sorted by Life Cycle Stage Assembly Groups or Operating vs Embodied Tables will automatically include all Summary Measures while graphs will produce one graph per Summary Measure chosen The five Absolute Value tables produce life
62. of a building including annual operating energy As an example when construction grade plywood is specified for use in Ontario the model locates the closest supplier British Columbia and applies the BC electricity grid in the manufacture of plywood but uses the Ontario electricity grid to calculate any on site electricity use during construction of the plywood based assembly Due to new power wheeling agreements across North America the Athena Institute has integrated the three major interconnection grids Eastern Western and Texas as the basis for electricity usage starting with Version 4 of the software However provinces and states that are deemed net exporters of electricity to the grid remain as 23 standalone grids in the model These data have been updated to reflect 2012 electricity generation information from various North American sources Much of the common fuels and energy carriers data called upon in the software are based on the US LCI database www nrel gov Ici We have adjusted some of these data to account for missing processes and gaps in flows On site construction Calculation of the on site construction effects take account of the energy used to transport materials or components from the manufacturer to a notional distribution centre and from the distribution centre to the building site The transportation distances are based on regional surveys The IE4B also takes account of the energy used to construct the structu
63. olumn Precast Concrete beam and or column Glulam beam and or column LVL PSL beam and or column Wide flange beam and or column Wide flange beam and or column Gerber Mixed column and beam mixed material system e g LVL beam on concrete column Metal Building Systems Primary frames Floors Composite Metal Concrete suspended slab Concrete parking garage drop panel system Concrete hollow core Concrete pre cast double T Open web steel joist with Q deck Steel joists with structural wood sheathing decking Composite metal floor system Glulam joists and solid wood decking Wood I joists with structural wood sheathing decking Light frame wood trusses parallel with structural wood sheathing decking Wood trusses with steel web and structural wood sheathing decking Solid wood joists with structural wood sheathing decking Roofs Composite Metal Concrete suspended slab Concrete parking garage drop panel system Concrete hollow core Concrete pre cast double T Open web steel joist with Q deck Composite metal roof system Steel joists with structural wood sheathing decking Glulam joists and solid wood decking Wood I joists with structural wood sheathing decking Light frame wood trusses parallel or pitched with structural wood sheathing decking Metal Building
64. onsumption namely all the fossil fuels In other words all the energy sources in the Energy Consumption Absolute Value table except for hydro non hydro renewable nuclear and wood Other tables and graphs are available for summary measures and absolute value LCI data Summary measures are available in a condensed life cycle stage table it shows only the Total columns of the detailed table and an Assembly Group Embodied Effects table that presents the embodied effects not including operating energy by assembly groups walls floors etc Absolute Value tables similarly available by life cycle stages and assembly groups are available for energy consumption resource use and air water and land emissions and provide Life Cycle Inventory data LCI To put this in context the Absolute Value results are derived from the material database and the Summary Measures are derived from the Absolute Value tables Results are also available in graph format Summary measures are available when sorted by assembly groups for individual projects but graphs are mainly used when comparing one or more projects to each other Comparison graphs can be produced for summary measures only by life 47 cycle stage or assembly groups and can show results by their values on a per metre squared basis or on a percentage basis compared to a project baseline Operating vs embodied If you input operating energy you can now do some interesting operating versus
65. ose that have landfill gas capture wells in place The average efficiency of those landfills that have capture equipment is 90 Emission Processes e Recycling The recycled material is assumed to leave the system boundary and is conservatively accounted as a 100 conversion to carbon dioxide e Direct Combustion The combusted material is accounted as a 100 conversion to carbon dioxide The Impact Estimator also accounts for the non GHG emissions of biomass combustion e Landfill Gas Combustion The landfill gas that is captured is either burned for energy or flared without energy recovery In both cases 100 of the landfill gas carbon is emitted as carbon dioxide The modeling did not account for any energy substitution effects e Fugitive Landfill Gas and No Landfill Gas Capture In the landfill modeling the landfill gas generated in anaerobic landfills that is not captured is directly emitted as 55 carbon dioxide and 45 methane on a molar basis Of the landfilled wood the landfill gas generated in the anaerobic landfills that have no landfill gas capture wells in place is similarly emitted entirely to the atmosphere as 55 carbon dioxide and 45 methane e Aerobic Landfill Similar to the anaerobic landfill in the aerobic landfill the decomposition is accounted as a first order decay with a 4 annual decay rate applied to the 23 of wood that decomposes The carbon in the decayed wood is 100 converted to carbon dioxide
66. ossil fuel proxies The IE4B s fossil fuel operating energy use options don t necessarily directly relate to the fuel types or names used by building service systems Here is some guidance for selecting fossil fuels proxies when a fuel appears unavailable in the program The following fuel proxies shall be used for operating energy LPG for fuels containing proportions of propane ethane propylene and butane Diesel for heating oil aka no 2 fuel oil Heavy fuel oil for furnace fuel oils aka residual fuel oils or no 5 and no 6 fuel oils A 50 50 mix of Diesel and Heavy fuel oil for no 4 fuel oils onc Construction Waste Factors can be found in the Extra Basic Materials input dialog 41 Material proxies It is often the case that materials unavailable in the IE4B can be modeled using proxy materials While the results will only approximate the effects of the desired material it is our opinion that this practice is acceptable if modeled according to the rules provided since the majority of effects will generally be captured Example A user wishes to model 1 m of aluminum composite panel composed of two layers of 0 5 mm thick aluminum sheets sandwiching a 2 mm polyethylene core The service life of the cladding is 35 years and the service life of the building is 60 years For this example IEAB materials Aluminum tonnes and 6 mil poly m will be used as proxy materials for the aluminum composi
67. pdated in 2012 e Resource harvesting profile updated in 2012 e Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile e CORRIM data for US reflects PNW and SE production in 2012 e See Corrim org for US reports Glulam Beams 2011 e Canadian regional data originally developed in 1993 updated in 2011 e Resource harvesting profile updated in 2009 e Latest Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile 16 Product Vintage Comments e CORRIM data for US reflects PNW and SE production in 2012 e See Corrim org or US LCI database www nrel gov Ici for US data Cross Laminated Timbers 2013 e Canadian regional data developed in 2014 e Latest Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile e Canadian data has been adjusted to reflect US system boundaries and source locations Wood I Joists 2012 e Composite product of softwood lumber LVL OSB or plywood with fabrication process Canadian and US regional data updated in 2012 Wood bevel siding 3 species Wood tongue and groove siding 3 species CDN 2009 US 2004 Wood shiplap siding 3 species Claddings e Canadian regional data originally developed in 2000 Cedar siding data updated in 2009 e Athena report available for Canadian cradle to gate profile e US profiles based on PNW SE lumber with Canadian transformation processes 2004 no report available Metal cladd
68. ple if you want to add 0 5 tonnes of WF steel sections to a beam assembly and 0 1 tonnes of WF steel sections to a composite floor assembly you can t enter these separately you need to enter 0 6 tonnes of WF Sections once If you are entering a lot of EBMss it s recommended that you keep a running tally of each material on the side as you enter your assemblies and at the end go to EBM and enter the totals all at once Users can model building entirely this way without using the assembly dialogs the BOM Import feature see below is using this route Adding custom concrete mixes New in v5 0 is the ability for users to define their own custom concrete mixes and to use them instead of the database mixes in assemblies Under the Tools menu open the User Defined Concrete Mix Design Library dialog where you can create new mix designs or edit existing ones To define a new mix simply add the constituent materials and define their percentages by weight or volume Once a mix is defined it will be available as a concrete choice in any assembly dialog that uses concrete Detailed instructions on how to define a new mix are available in the help file at the bottom of the dialog box or at Tools gt User Defined Concrete Mix Design Library in the online help files Using the bill of materials import feature The Bill of Materials Import feature allows users to import a BOM from an existing design in a CAD program directly into Extra Basic Mate
69. portant and generally outweighs embodied impacts in the long term we ignore the short term impacts at our peril Our timeframe for mitigating climate change is the present not 60 years down the road We need to reduce the embodied impacts of the construction sector if we are serious about climate change In addition many of the other environmental degradations due to construction and its upstream activities such as acidification and eutrophication are only addressed by LCA and are heavily weighted to the manufacturing phase we completely ignore these effects when we only look at operating energy The IE4B provides holistic whole building results We need to look at total building results to best understand trade offs and to know where to focus our attention when looking for improvements The IE4B provides the whole building results while also allowing users to assess components assemblies and products as needed Products or assemblies with a heavy environmental burden can be balanced out by other building elements In addition the environmental performance of individual products is properly considered within the context of the whole building this is an issue of scale Traditional sustainability metrics don t provide any indication of the relative scale of impact For example Product One might have much lower environmental burdens than Product Two yet choosing Product One could have a negligible impact on total building performance If Pro
70. processes that were modelled P British Standards Institute 2011 Publicly Available Specification PAS for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services 14 ISO TC 14067 2013 Greenhouse gases Carbon footprint of products Requirements and guidelines for quantification and communication Bhatia et al 2011 Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard Published by the World Resources Institute WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBCSD 16 More than 95 of wood decay occurs during the first 100 years that the material is in the landfill zd The sequestration tool and its documentation https fpinnovations ca ResearchProgram environment sustainability epd program Pages default aspx VBjwnhaNNCo 31 Recycling No Landfil Landfill Gas sas Capture Combustion andfill Gas apture in Place Figure 5 End of life model for wood products There are two types of processes Conversion Processes End of Life Landfill Anaerobic Landfill Landfill Gas Capture in Place Emission Processes Recycling Direct Combustion Aerobic Landfill No Landfill Gas Capture Fugitive Landfill Gas Landfill Gas Combustion The various processes in the end of life model were modeled using published parameters for the conversion and emission processes and are detailed in the following section Conversion Processes End of Life At the end of th
71. q 2 65E 04 3 55E 07 2 65E 04 1 18E 05 4 75E 07 1 23E 05 6 83E 05 2 56E 06 1 11E 04 1 82E 04 Smog Potential kg O3 eq 6 93E 03 3 17E 03 1 01E 04 1 91E 03 4 63E 03 6 54E 03 2 19E 04 2 39E 04 1 52E 05 1 98E 05 Total Primary Energy MJ 5 60E 06 1 29E 05 5 73E 06 3 32E 05 2 30E 05 5 63E 05 1 66E 07 1 09E 06 4 94E 07 6 71E 07 Non Renewable Energy MJ 5 53E 06 1 29E 05 5 66E 06 3 28E 05 2 30E 05 5 58E 05 1 65E 07 1 09E 06 4 86E 07 6 61E 07 Fossil Fuel Consumption MJ 5 30E 06 1 29E 05 5 43E 06 3 15E 05 2 30E 05 5 45E 05 1 60E 07 1 08E 06 4 51E 07 6 22E 07 Figure 7 Partial Results Table by Life Cycle Stage The IE4B produces results for these mid point impact measures 1 acidification potential aquatic eutrophication potential global warming potential human health particulate ozone depletion smog total primary energy consumption non renewable energy consumption fossil fuel consumption o 00 cM n Up m we N 45 Acidification Potential Acidification is a more regional rather than global impact effecting human health when high concentrations of NO and SO are attained The acidification potential of an air or water emission is calculated on the basis of its H equivalence effect on a mass basis Aquatic Eutrophication Potential Eutrophication is the fertilization of surface waters by nutrients that were previously scarce When a previously scarce or limiting nutrient is added to a water body it lea
72. ral elements of the building and the emissions to air water and land associated with the on site construction activity See the example below Example What we include when calculating the LCA for the construction phase of a cast in place concrete wall assembly e Pouring a cast in place wall typically consists of assembling the formwork and placing reinforcing rebar in the forms and around openings then pouring concrete into the forms e The forms may be moved about the site by forklift or crane and may be assembled by hand or crane for large scale formwork e Rebar is moved around the site using forklifts and or cranes and would typically be assembled by hand e The concrete will arrive on site in a concrete mixing truck and will be poured using a concrete pump or a crane and bucket e Both concrete and rebar are assumed to make a 40 km round trip from mixing plant or distributor to the building site e Onsite waste for concrete is estimated at 5 and consists of any spillage from the forms and the dumping of excess concrete not required on site e Formwork is re used until its degradation adversely affects the surface finish of the concrete work On average a 10 loss of material is assumed after each use e Awall might also need temporary heating for concrete curing It is difficult to estimate whether or not a wall may be poured in sub zero weather as such a proportion of the energy needed has been factored into the construction equal
73. red via an IE4B dialog box The IE4B then calculates primary operating energy including pre combustion energy the energy used to extract refine and deliver energy and the related emissions to air water and land over the life cycle of the building Thereafter the software can contrast embodied energy with operating energy of the project The IE4B does not include operating water use and does not include building occupant transportation These site specific effects can be calculated through other means and manually added to results End of life The software uses a simple algorithm to discern the final disposition of building materials at the building s expected end of life because it is difficult to forecast the state of the art for material final disposition so far in the future Building materials are proportionately categorized as being recycled reused or landfilled Except for metals products that are recycled reused or incinerated for energy recovery are deemed to have left the system boundary and any credits associated with these products are accounted for in the next use Metals recycling as scrap are modeled using a closed loop recycling or avoided burden methodology and these effects are captured in the software as opposed to potentials outside the system boundary At the user defined expected building end of life the software first estimates the energy required to deconstruct demolish the major structural systems of the buil
74. rials in an IE4B project thereby accounting for all the materials in the building without entering individual assemblies or entering all the materials by hand in EBM From your CAD program export a bill of materials to an Excel file recommended or a delimited text file The process involves three main steps To start create a new project in the tree then right click on the P icon in the tree and choose BOM File Import Step 1 is to load the export file by browsing to it in windows and selecting it The IE4B will try to identify which is the header row and which row the data begins If it gets it wrong you can identify them yourself Step 2 is to map the columns The IE4B is only looking for three columns of information to import material names units of measure UOM and quantities The IE4B will look at the header row defined in step 1 and try to identify which column is which If it gets it wrong you can manually 39 identify the material UOM and quantity columns Any other columns in the export file will be ignored Step 3 is to map the rows You need to map each material and UOM in the export file to the equivalent material name and UOM in the IE4B For instance if you have a material named W30x10 Steel Girder in pounds in the export file you will need to tell the IE4B that this corresponds to WF Sections and assign a conversion factor from pounds to tonnes the material name and UOM in the IE4B database This will need to be don
75. roduce the Bill of Materials report it includes the materials the building is comprised of and the construction waste quantities associated with its initial construction c For the material you wish to modify divide the quantity as shown in the bill of materials by the material s construction waste factor the result is now just the quantity of material found in the building d Determine and input the adjustment to be made i A material can be completely removed from the model by inputting into the Extra Basic Materials dialog the quantity determined in step c as a negative number ii A material quantity found in the building can adjusted by inputting into the Extra Basic Materials dialog the difference between the desired quantity and that determined in step c To increase or decrease the quantity input the difference as a positive or negative number respectively Project location proxies Not all locations in the US and Canada are currently available in the IE4B Here is some guidance for selecting a location when the project city is unavailable a Forthe US i Select the nearest available city located in the same state ii If no city is available in the same state select USA average b For Canada i Select the nearest available city located in the same province ii Ifnocity is available in the same province select the nearest available city there is no Canada average location currently available Operating energy f
76. rograms cccssscccsssscccesssscccsssseecesssseecesssseecesesecesesaeeesssseeeessesseessesneeees 50 Where to find more help cccccsscccssssscccssssecessssecesesseecsssssecessuseccsssusecesessecesesasecessaseecseaeeeessueeeeseaaes 50 List of Tables Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 IE4B system boundary capacity eene nnnn nennen sienne 13 IE4B object of assessment scope capacity eceesseccsssssecessnseecescseecesssssecesssssecessseeeesenees 14 IEAB product LCI database eeeceescecesseeeseeseeeeeeaeeceaeeceaneceeaeeseaeeeeaeeseaeeseaeessaeeseaeeeeaeeseaes 15 IE4B assembly categories and structural SYStCMS csccceeceeseneeeeeeceaeeseeeceeaeeneneeeeaeeseaes 19 Example of a replacement schedule esses eene enne enne nnns 26 List of Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 How the Impact Estimator for Buildings WOrKS c ccccsssseceessseeeesssseecesssseceessseeesssaeeees 9 The life cycle stages of LCA for buildings and building products s 11 Example of a structural sizing CUVE sissandi nennen eene enne nennen nnns 22 Recycling rates of North American steel products 29 End of life model for wood products csscccessssccesssseeceseseeeeesssseecsssssecessseeeeessaeeeessnees 32 Bay and Span terminology cic eant cte cabe red ed Eoi e Quos eoe rede one dcus 37 Partial Resu
77. score or rating here Your results are simply a statement of fact regarding the LCA performance of your building You may have generated these results for the single purpose of declaring your building s footprint perhaps in an environmental building declaration In that case your task is finished and you have no need for interpretation However you likely have produced the results in order to establish a benchmark for your building a starting point upon which you wish to improve with further design refinement The remainder of this section gives you some tips for doing that Bear in mind an important LCA caveat LCA is a science but is not intended to be exact By definition LCA is an estimating science because we are trying to predict future states LCA results are not hard and fast answers Instead LCA results are approximations that help guide our further decisions We typically use LCA to compare various options in other words we are looking at relative performance of choice one versus choice two Use LCA results to draw general conclusions about the two choices relative to each other 48 When using two sets of LCA data for comparisons it s imperative that both results came from the same software tool with the same assumptions and same underlying data set For example you can t compare a building LCA study with the IE4B to a study done with a different tool Different tools have different background factors that slig
78. seaeeseaeeseeaeeeeaeenes 12 UCAS Methodology cer tieniti eee sd esee te reru E 12 Underlvingil Gl dabat terrd ee ne re Pee ea ee tai een tete 15 Organization of inputs by building assembly nennen nennen nnns 19 IEAB background activity iiic eset acea anaa iba rade ick acabe deba eR en eb aaa ere a aie rea ena 21 SOP MAN Ua i scc C 34 Starting a NOW PrOjeCt M sanenavesseccing caneeasysanesrebatnesduvaleiadelavenetieetiueses 34 Adding aisle 34 Adding walls 2 centra donatur E Re TR RE TNR cade 35 Adding columns and D aMS citm te teet e reca i d d d d e T d dun 36 Adding floors and roofs nee E ei ier ER rri err E ERR ERR 37 Adding extra materials roi nie eater Oc eni eir en le ipea 38 Adding custom concrete mixes aui eee rei gei ari ocn i ea co a a da ccv s nd a a Ra Bd ea ad eda dada dia de edel 39 Using the bill of materials import feature sssssssesseseeeee eene enne nnne enne nennen 39 Inputting operating energy data ccccccssccccsssseccesssseccsssseecesssseecessseceseseeecessueeesssseeecsessseeesesaeeees 40 dei ereesct 41 Viewing results and generating repOrts ccccccccessscccsssseccessseeecsssseeeessuecessesseeessaeeeseseeeesssaeeeesses 45 Interpreting results 5 ineinander ied Eaa aE a HR Ete dA AERE END eR E CR eMe ed 48 Use with green building P
79. te panel 1 Calculate the amounts of aluminum and 6 mil poly in the aluminum composite panel Aluminum 1m2 2 0 0005m 2 7 tonne m3 0 0027 tonnes Aluminum 6 mil poly 1m2 2 0 0254mm mil 6mil 13 1 m 6 mil poly Calculate the number of aluminum composite panel replacements that occur over the building service life and the resulting material use NR 60 yrs 35 yrs 35 yrs 20 71 tonnes of Aluminum 0 0027 0 71 0 0019 m of 6 mil poly 13 1 0 71 9 30 Model the aluminum composite panel in the IE4B with the material quantities calculated in steps 1 and 2 entered as extra basic materials according to the rules provided below Aluminum 0 0027 tonnes 0 0019 tonnes 0 0046 tonnes 6 mil poly 13 1m2 9 3m2 22 4m2 Rules for using material proxies 1 42 A material may be modeled using an available IE4B material as a proxy provided the materials have the same basic chemical alloy composition The proxy material quantity input into the IE4B shall reflect the amount on a mass basis of material used in the project Two or more proxy materials may be used to model a composite building product provided each constituent material of the composite is in accordance with rule 1 The following procedure shall be used when modeling with proxy materials a Produce Project results model the complete building except the proxy material s and export the desired results by Life Cycle Stage i e by
80. the requisite information about the plant is available and the fuels used by the facility are available in the IE4B 1 The operating energy from a district system attributable to a building shall be calculated according to the following equation Fpn Ep 1 L 100 Ep Fon 43 2 where Fon is the annual fuel use quantity for fuel type n attributable to the project and to be input into the IE4B e g kWh electricity m natural gas Fon is the total annual fuel use of the district system facility for fuel type n inclusive of facility operating energy e g kWh electricity m natural gas etc Ep is the project s operating energy use demand in MJ Btu etc Ep is the total annual net energy production of the district facility in MJ Btu etc L is the estimated line losses of the district system in 96 in accordance with the polluter pays principal a user can neglect the environmental effects of that portion of district energy facility energy produced with secondary fuels e g municipal waste tires solvents etc Net energy production for steam hot water and chilled water Supply Energy Return Energy For cogeneration plants Ey is the total net energy production of the plant net heat electricity Each type of fuel the district energy facility uses for its operation shall be attributed to the project Combining IE4B and EPD results Good practice in whole building LCA requires significa
81. tible from version to version their results will not be if the model includes any materials in which the data has changed in a new version If a user wishes to reproduce results from previous versions he she will need to use that previous version to do so The current version of the IE4B is 5 0 0103 released July 2014 The IE4B began life in 2000 as a spreadsheet model It was converted to a commercial software application in 2002 under the name Environmental Impact Estimator In 2005 it was migrated to a C object oriented platform and then in 2007 completely re written in CH Along the way it went through several major updates and was renamed the Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings Please refer to the web site www calculatelca com for the latest updates on the software system requirements and what s new in the current release LCA 101 Life cycle assessment is typically a cradle to grave quantification of potential environmental impacts of products or services it is based on natural sciences and considers the entire value chain LCA has long been used in the industrial sector to understand environmental hotspots in products so that improvements can most effectively be made Similarly LCA can help building designers focus their efforts when a reduced footprint is desired This application is called whole building LCA when the entire building project is considered holistically in an LCA exercise as opposed to LCA applied to parts
82. tions Starting a new project When you open the IE4B to start a new project you will see a blank workspace and a blank tree to the left of the screen The workspace is where dialog boxes and result will show The tree is an organizational display technique used by the IE4B to help you keep track of assemblies add and modify assemblies and keep your eye on running totals of LCA results Your first step is to add project Click File New or right click on Impact Estimator in the tree and select new project A dialog box appears you will enter general data about the project its name location building life span total building height total building area and building type Enter energy consumption data if you have it Also choose the units SI metric or Imperial that you wish to operate in Units can be changed later or in individual dialog boxes if necessary Add any notes and click OK Now the tree shows a project level entry with a P icon and the name of your project Save the project e Watch a six minute video demonstration on starting a new project 01 Getting Started e Read the help file for adding and modifying projects Click Creating a New Project gt Add or Modify a Project e Read the help file about how the tree works Click gt Tree e Readthe help file about how the menus work Click Menus Now you re ready to build the project If you already have a model of this building in a CAD
83. uilding System Wall A dialog will open and you will have several choices to make depending on the wall type For example in a wood stud wall you will choose the wall type sheathing type stud spacing and stud thickness Don t forget the Help button at the bottom of each dialog box for explanations on the specifics of each assembly type Click on the Opening tab if you want to model windows or doors in the wall For windows you need to enter the number of windows and the total area of all the windows in this assembly Choose Fixed or Operable windows and the frame and glazing types from the drop down boxes For doors 35 the size is fixed 32 x84 you need only to enter the number of doors and choose the door type from the drop down box As with foundations you can click on the envelope tab and add envelope materials to your wall assembly The envelope quantities will be calculated based on the area of your wall assembly height x width total window area total door area and for insulations on the thickness that you enter When you re done click OK and a new Walls assembly group G and your new wall assembly A will appear in the tree under your project level P If you wish to add a new wall simply click on the walls group level G and choose Add Assembly Custom walls and repeat the steps above e Watcha nine minute video demonstration on adding a wall assembly 03 Adding Assemblies Walls e Read the help file
84. w As usual enter an assembly name and fill out the required information in the form s fields e Composite Metal System e Concrete Hollow Core e Concrete Suspended Slab e Concrete Parking Garage Floor System e Concrete Precast Double T System e Light Frame Wood Truss System e Metal Building System Roof only e OWS amp Steel Decking with Concrete Topping e Steel Joists and Plywood or OSB Flooring System e Wood Glulam Joist and Plank Decking System e Wood I Joist amp Plywood or OSB Decking System e Wood Joists amp Plywood or OSB Decking System e Wood Chord amp Steel Web Truss System The information required will differ depending on which assembly type you choose but generally you need a bay size span and live load to add an assembly to your project The help button at the bottom of each form will explain the details of the required fields The envelope tab is available with floors and roofs if you wish to add envelope claddings roofing materials insulation vapour barrier etc materials to your assembly When you re done click OK and a new Floors or Roofs assembly group G and your new assembly A will appear in the tree under your project level P e Watch a six minute video demonstration on adding a floor or roof assembly 05 Floors Roofs e Read the help file about how to add a floor or roof Click gt Add or Modify Assemblies gt Floors or Roofs Adding extra materials Extra Basic Materials EB
85. zed in Table 2 The available building products can be combined in various ways to model the vast majority of structure enclosure and partition construction assemblies commonly in use in North America an estimated 1 5004 Similarly the 3 While the IE4B does not fully support Maintenance B2 Repair B3 and Refurbishment B5 IMs an advanced user can model these effects provided 1 material fuel use quantities for these activities are known and 2 the materials fuels are available in the program 13 available operating energy fuels noted in the table cover the vast majority of building service system fuel sources used Environmental profiles of the building products and operating energy fuels typically reflect industry average practice i e not specific to any particular manufacturing plant or energy producer and the region the building is located in Table 2 IE4B object of assessment scope capacity Material Use Operating Energy Use There are currently 140 pre defined structure and enclosure building products that can be used to model the following Can be used to model any energy end use fuelled by UNIFORMAT II elements e Grid electricity Natural gas e A1010 Standard Foundations e Liquefied petroleum gas A1020 Special Foundations Diesel e A1030 Slab on Grade e Heavy fuel oil e A2020 Basement Walls e Gasoline e B1010 Floor Construction e B1020 Roof Construction e B2010 Exterior Walls e B2020 Exterior W

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