Version 1
: Received: 11 September 2023 / Approved: 12 September 2023 / Online: 13 September 2023 (12:41:44 CEST)
How to cite:
Jonasson, J.; Faith-Ell, C.; Carlman, I.; Englund, O. The Environmental Performance of Zero Emission Buildings in a Fossil-Free Energy System. Preprints2023, 2023090881. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.0881.v1
Jonasson, J.; Faith-Ell, C.; Carlman, I.; Englund, O. The Environmental Performance of Zero Emission Buildings in a Fossil-Free Energy System. Preprints 2023, 2023090881. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.0881.v1
Jonasson, J.; Faith-Ell, C.; Carlman, I.; Englund, O. The Environmental Performance of Zero Emission Buildings in a Fossil-Free Energy System. Preprints2023, 2023090881. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.0881.v1
APA Style
Jonasson, J., Faith-Ell, C., Carlman, I., & Englund, O. (2023). The Environmental Performance of Zero Emission Buildings in a Fossil-Free Energy System. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.0881.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Jonasson, J., Inga Carlman and Oskar Englund. 2023 "The Environmental Performance of Zero Emission Buildings in a Fossil-Free Energy System" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.0881.v1
Abstract
Buildings can play an important role in reducing GHG emissions through increased energy efficiency. The European Commission issued a proposal in 2021 suggesting that all new buildings should be “zero-emission Buildings” (ZEB), aiming at a zero GHG emission building stock by 2050.The extent to which ZEB can contribute to reduced GHG emissions, however, varies between countries, due to different energy systems. It is also important to consider other environmental effects to avoid that climate benefits come with unintended consequences.Here, we explore the life-cycle environmental performance for a ZEB in a case where electricity and heating is largely fossil-free. The assessment concentrates on i) environmental impact of the use stage in relation to the product stage, ii) the interrelation between different energy sources, with attention on household electricity, and iii) the performance for more impact categories than primary energy use and climate change. While our results generally support the use of ZEBs from an environmental perspective, they also show that the climate benefit in this setting is marginal. However, given that energy systems are connected and energy savings in one place can reduce the demand for fossil energy elsewhere, the climate benefit of ZEBs is likely underestimated. Besides methdological implications for future studies, this indicates that current EU policy is promising, as incentives for implementation of ZEBs is unaffected by domestic effects.
Keywords
Zero-Emission Building; Life cycle assessment; Environmental sustainability; Building materials; Environmental engineering design; Energy efficiency
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
