Session
WE.2.A || Life Cycle Sustainability in Construction and Renovation of Buildings II

Authors
Perez-Valdes, Gerardo A.; Fufa, Selamawit; Fjellheim, Kristin

Abstract
Given that most of the world’s building stock for the next 30 years already exists today, renovation of existing buildings and infrastructure represent an important pathway towards a more sustainable future. There is a need for well-established method to help informed decision-making from a life cycle perspective on whether to rehabilitate or demolition and building new. The aim of this paper is twofold: 1) to evaluate potentials for waste reduction, efficient resource utilization, economic and GHG emission reduction of rehabilitation in comparison with demolition and building new, of 2) demonstrate the usefulness of macroeconomic analysis in evaluation of value creation and employment potential, and environmental effects of changes in the building stock. A macroeconomic, input-output model developed by SINTEF is used in a methodology to make comparative assessments on future scenarios on building and renovation strategies. Preliminary results show how the strategies analysed provide pros and cons when different macroeconomic indicators (value added, GHG emissions, energy efficiency) are considered. This demonstrates how policy and decision makers can lean towards one strategy or another, depending on their policy goals in the long term. Future works will improve technical data and macroeconomic assumptions, as integrate policy analysis into the methodology.