Date of Award
2023
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.Sc.
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Supervisor
E.Tam
Supervisor
R.Ruparathna
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Environmental and economic impacts of the building sector have been a key source of concern for sustainable development. The circular economy concept is popular as a sustainable and innovative approach to resource management and waste reduction. Adopting circular economy principles in the construction sector could considerably optimize the materials use, reduce the carbon footprint, construction cost, and waste generation in this sector. The end-of-life phase of a building is a critical stage in its lifecycle that has a significant impact on the environment. However, the published literature has overlooked comparing the end-of-life management of building that facilitate the circularity of construction industry. As a result, measuring the environmental performance of buildings during this phase is critical for long-term development. Accordingly, the proposed research stems from the principals of circular economy and examines tits potential in the end-of-life phase of ICI building through implementing an eco-efficiency-based comparison.
The vision of this research is to incorporate life cycle sustainability assessment and life cycle cost into end-of-life of building management. This research developed a methodological framework for implementing circular economy in industrial, commercial, institutional (ICI) buildings. This framework uses BIM to obtain materials data of end-of-life scenarios of building. In order to make a life cycle impact database, the BIM model of a proposed building was converted to an Excel file. Athena Impact Estimator (AIE), GaBi, and published literature were used to develop the life cycle impact database. The developed framework was used to compare the environmental and economic performance of alternative end-of-life scenarios by using eco-efficiency rating. Three end-of-life scenarios were compared using the eco-efficiency rating system. The findings of this study emphasise how applying the circular economy can reduce waste generation, have a positive impact on the environment and open up new economic opportunities. Based on the evaluation, the adaptive reuse was identified as the preferred end-of-life management alternative. The uncertainty of data was investigated using the sensitivity analysis.
Recommended Citation
Ghasemi, Laleh, "Circular Economy for Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI) Buildings: Comparison of Alternative End-of-the-Life Cycle Management Scenarios" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9074.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9074