NDLI: Inadequate documentation in published life cycle energy reports on buildings

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Optis, Michael Wild, Peter
Copyright Year	2010
Abstract	Over the past two decades, energy efficiency of building operation has increased significantly. As a result, the percentage of building life cycle energy attributed to embodied energy has also risen. This percentage, as measured in recent LCA studies, ranges between 2% and 51% and is influenced by the different climatic, infrastructure, and building characteristics that comprise the input data for these studies. Comparing the results of these studies is helpful in understanding how different combinations of these characteristics influence the relative proportions of embodied and operational energy. However, results are also influenced by the subjectivity inherent in each LCA study. Thus, meaningful comparison of results requires documentation of study methodologies, as outlined in ISO 14041.In this paper, 20 journal articles describing LCA studies of buildings were reviewed for their adherence to key ISO 14041 documentation requirements.It was found that the majority of journal articles have inadequate documentation.Journal articles are not subject to ISO 14041 requirements and, due to limitations in article length, some degree of documentation is necessarily omitted. However, since journal articles provide much of the publicly available data on the life cycle energy of buildings, a minimum degree of documentation should be provided to allow comparison between LCA results, without substantially increasing article length. Recommended documentation for journal articles that describe LCA studies of buildings, as proposed in this paper, includes: a list life cycle stages and unit processes included within the system boundary; a statement of calculation procedure; and the referencing of all data sources.
Starting Page	644
Ending Page	651
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09483349
Journal	The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Volume Number	15
Issue Number	7
e-ISSN	16147502
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2010-06-12
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Buildings Documentation Embodied energy ISO 14041 Life cycle assessment Environmental Economics Environment
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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