Assessment and Evaluation Tools for Circularity

Life Cycle Assessment

In this video, Arjen discusses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the tools for measuring LCA and its relation to circularity through specific examples.

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Main Takeaways

  • Life cycle assessment, or LCA, is an assessment method to determine the environmental impacts of a product or service over its whole life cycle, from cradle to grave.
  • There are several LCA tools for buildings available, such as One-Click LCA, BREAAM, LEED, TOTEM or GPR Gebouw.
  • The main challenge of applying LCA to circular construction materials or circular project lies in the way environmental impacts of materials and products that are reused or recycled outside the scope of the building project should be attributed.
  • Currently, the tendency is to go for separate LCA and circularity indicators to provide as much transparency as possible.

Author

Arjen Meijer
Arjen Meijer
Assistant Professor

Dr. Arjen Meijer is assistant professor in the chair of Building Energy Epidemiology of the department of Architectural Engineering and Technology. As environmental scientist, he teaches and carries out research in the field of life cycle assessment (LCA) of building materials and of buildings, circular building, and measurements and analysis of energy consumption, comfort and indoor climate in dwellings. His research interest is to connect the LCA methodology to the circular built environment to gain insights in the sustainability of the construction materials used for circular solutions. Material sustainability becomes more crucial in the context of improving energy performance of buildings, making an efficient use of resources and closing material loops an important issue for promoting a comprehensive strategy for a sustainable and resilient construction sector. 

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Circularity for Educators

The platform is intended to provide with content on either circularity or pedagogy for and about circularity. It is one of the outcomes of the Circular Impulse Initiative (CII), a project intending to enhance the integration of circularity in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment education. The platform mainly aims to help tutors get better acquainted with circularity in the built environment by providing a series of resources on this subject that they can either view to get better informed or directly share with their students in class or online. A large number of the Faculty's professors and researchers have contributed substantially both in creating a coherent narrative for circularity in the built environment as well as further elaborating on different aspects of it. Besides this one, a new platform for interaction and direct exchange was also established in parallel that we call ‘Educators for Circularity‘. This one offers the opportunity for all of us to meet and share our experiences and learn from one another.

Visit Educators for Circularity