Life-Cycle Environmental Effects of an Office Building

Abstract

This paper quantifies the significant environmental aspects of a new high-end office building over 50 years of service life. A comprehensive environmental life-cycle assessment—including data quality assessment—was conducted to provide detailed information for establishing the causal connection between the different life-cycle elements and potential environmental impacts. The results show that most of the impacts are associated with electricity use and building materials manufacturing—in particular, electricity used in lighting, HVAC systems, and outlets; heat conduction through the structures; manufacturing and maintenance of steel; manufacturing of concrete and paint; water use and wastewater generation; and office waste management. Construction and demolition were found to have relatively insignificant impacts. The identified most significant aspects are quite predominant; 7% of all counted aspects cover over 50% of the life-cycle impacts. Practical applications of the study’s results could be in the environmentally conscious design and management of office buildings.