Eco-Region NW: Sustainable Construction CCINW, Manchester, September 6, 2005 Alastair Moore

Eco-Region NW: Sustainable Construction

CCINW, Manchester, September 6, 2005

Alastair Moore

University of Manchester

Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology

Order of things . . .

• Project overview

• Ecological footprint

• Scenario modelling tool

• Case study: construction

• Conclusions & Questions

Eco-Region North West

Energy & water

Goods & services

Renewable resources

Non-renewable resources Resource

depletion

Air, water, waste

Goods & services

OUTPUTSFuture impacts

Land & environmental capacity

INPUTS

Information & capital

PeoplePeople

CITIES & REGIONS as MATERIAL PROCESSORS

OBJECTIVES

Databasing: comprehensive data system on

regional resource and waste flows

Modelling: integrated model to analyse future

trends and scenarios

Benchmarking: reporting system for waste

minimization and resource productivity

Business applications: apply the model /

database system to the construction industry

Policy & public applications: use the database /

modelling system to analyse regional policy

Indicators:

Can be applied to regional economy: or SIC sectors, or products (e.g. house)

• Ecological impacts: ecological footprint (EF)

• Climate change: carbon intensity

• Resource efficiency: resource inputs / resource outputs

• Resource sufficiency: domestic production / domestic consumption

• Resource productivity: GVA in production per unit MFA

• Res.effectiveness: primary inputs / final consumption after waste

Ecological Footprint• Estimate of a population's consumption of food, materials and

energy in terms of the area of biologically productive land or sea required to produce those natural resources

• gha: A global hectare is one hectare of biologically productive space with world-average productivity

• 2002, biosphere had 11.4 billion hectares of biologically productive space (approx one quarter of the planet's surface)

• Includes 2.0 billion hectares of ocean and 9.4 billion hectares of land.

• 1 global hectare is a hectare representing the average capacity of one of these 11.4 billion hectares.

• Global hectares allow the meaningful comparison of the ecological footprints of different countries, regions, LAs, which use different qualities and mixes of cropland, grazing land, and forest

• When all global hectares of bioprucdtive land and sea are divided by the total global population, we end up with our fair earth share - 1.8 gha.

Construction sector:

case study

Drivers?

• UK Gov’t Sustainable Development Strategy • UK SCP• Sustainable Communities• Prescott’s £60K house• Kyoto and UK GHG targets• Aggregate levy• Landfill levy• SEA• SA• Competitiveness• Current NW footprint 6.2 gha/cap vs ‘fair earth

share of 1.8 gha/cap

Overall picture

Scenario modelling framework

• Housing stock, flow model

• Spreadsheet-model linked to REAP and others

• Baselines or exg stock, growth, clearances

• HH energy demand scenarios

• Housing construction (MFA, EF, C02)

Ecological footprint of construction

• 0.63 gha/cap household energy demand (~10% of total EF)

• 0.3-0.6 gha/cap for construction activities

• How to reduce the EF of housing by factor of 4 (i.e. ~0.16 gha/cap for energy demand & 0.08-0.15 for construction)?

To build new. . . . or not to build new?This is the question (sort of)

• ~15-18,000 new houses constructed per year (RSS)• Opportunity for energy efficiency gains & lower EF• Has considerable construction EF to annualize

• ~13,000 additional houses per year, net of clearances• ~3-5,000 homes cleared (demolished) per year

• Reduces EF of poor quality exg stock• Replacement houses have construction EF to annualize• New homes have lower operating EF

• Should no. of new more efficient houses be increased, or should we retrofit existing stock?

• Could retrofit some or all of 3-5,000 homes slated for clearing

Construction phase

How ‘heavy’ is a house, and what is it’s ecological impact?

EA code

123 code

TOTAL Ecological Footprint per

tonne (=direct + indirect) EF

EF

gha/tonne t/house gha

7 7 Other mining and quarrying 0.009 137.56 1.17

34 51 Structural clay products 0.076 19.60 1.48

35 52 Cement, lime and plaster 0.176 15.03 2.65

36 53 Articles of concrete, stone etc 0.028 105.78 2.99

13 31 Wood and wood products 1.523 7.82 11.90

25 42 Paints, varnishes, printing ink etc 0.615 0.69 0.43

30 47 Rubber products 1.305 0.11 0.14

31 48 Plastic products 1.262 2.10 2.65

32 49 Glass and glass products 0.306 0.99 0.30

33 50 Ceramic goods 0.283 0.76 0.21

37 54 Iron and steel 0.727 2.52 1.83

41 57-61 Structural metal products 1.433 2.00 2.86

44 70-72 Electric motors and generators etc 0.537 0.94 0.50

Total 150 + 137 29.1

MFA (standard vs eco) STANDARD gha/tonne

EF-standard (gha) ECO-TYPE gha/tonne

EF-eco-type (gha)

CEMENT 11.523 0.176

2.028 1.163 0.176

0.205

BRICK 6.343 0.076

0.482 0.423 0.076

0.032

LIME 0.079 0.176

0.014 0.226 0.176

0.040

STEEL 0.162 0.727

0.118

PVC WINDOWS 0.348 1.262

0.439

TIMBER - - 3.177 1.523

4.838

INSULATION (rock) 0.399 0.009

0.004

INSULATION (polystyrene) 0.272 1.262

0.343

INSULATION (cellulose) - 0.513 1.523

0.781

CER.TILES 0.401 0.283

0.113 0.401 0.283

0.113

CLAY TILES - 2.789 0.076

0.211

AGGREGATE -

3.541

6.220

House construction EF• Total EF embodied in construction materials required to build typical

house in the NW is 29 gha

• REAP tells us another 13 gha per house is due to the activities of actually assembling all these materials into a house

• Total EF of constructing a dwelling is 0.3 gha/cap/yr (assuming 60 yr lifespan) or 0.6 if 30 years is used (assuming closer comparability with operational costs)

Total EF / cap from construction

2005 2010 2025 2050

60 yr operational life 0.3

30 yr operational life 0.6

Household energy damand:

A series of potential policy options

combined option - no retrofit; add 12K Ecohomes Excellent

existing stock - 1/3 replaced by 2050 2900 2900 2864 2758 2591

new stock at increased rate 16k /yr 16 80 320 720

total stock: exg + new 2900 2944 3078 3311

energy EF in exg m.gha 4.3 4.30 4.30 4.30

energy EF in new: Ecohomes excellent m.gha 0.04 0.15 0.34

total EF from HH energy demand 1000 gha 4.30 4.34 4.45 4.64

total EF / cap from HH energy demand 0.63 0.63 0.63 0.64

combined option - 40% house retrofit; add 12K Ecohomes Excellent

2900 2900 2885 2840 2766



exg dwelling efficiency:40% house gha per

dw 1.48 1.41 1.19 0.82

energy EF in exg: 40% house m.gha 4.3 4.06 3.37 2.26

energy EF in new: Ecohomes excellent m.gha 0.03 0.11 0.34



Results (build & operate)Policy options total EF / cap from HH energy demand

2005 2010 2025 2050

single policy: add 18K annually 0.63 0.65 0.68 0.69

combined option - no retrofit; add 12K Ecohomes Excellent

0.63 0.63 0.63 0.64

combined option - no retrofit; add 12K BedZED 0.63 0.63 0.62 0.61

combined option - 40% house retrofit; add 12K Ecohomes Excellent

0.63 0.59 0.49 0.36

combined option - retrofit to 40% house std ovr 30 yrs; add 9K BedZED

0.63 0.59 0.49 0.34

combined option - 40% house with 30% (31K) replacement; BedZED

0.63 0.57 0.42 0.25

combined option - 40% house with 50% (42K) replacement; BedZED

0.63 0.55 0.38 0.20

Total EF / cap from construction

60 yr operational life 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3

30 yr operational life 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6

Questions• Is the EF the best metric to measure resource

efficiency?• How do we annualize the EF of construction

to ensure comparability between new build and retrofitting?

• Footprint calculations are an underestimate of our global impacts, and they rely on national and regional level data. Does this make the EF measure too simplistic?

• Is the EF’s accuracy sufficient to allow us to act on what the footprint is showing us now?

Conclusions

• Retrofitting may deserve a closer look.• Few key assumptions, but EF, CO2 and

material intensity results are comparable. • Start of a universal indicator of ecological

impact of consumption.• Data is generally standardized and

available yearly; hence updatable• More data will yield better resolution.

Alastair Moore

Research Associate

Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology

University of Manchester

[email protected]

CO2 emissions from construction of typical UK house

EA code

123 code

TOTAL Co2 for different building

materials

tonnes materials per house

Total CO2 per house

T CO2/tonne

7 7 Other mining and quarrying 0.019 137.56 2.58

34 51 Structural clay products 0.188 19.60 3.68

35 52 Cement, lime and plaster 0.671 15.03 10.09

36 53 Articles of concrete, stone etc 0.076 105.78 8.03

13 31 Wood and wood products 0.674 7.82 5.27

25 42 Paints, varnishes, printing ink etc 0.506 0.69 0.35

30 47 Rubber products 1.131 0.11 0.12

31 48 Plastic products 1.285 2.10 2.70

32 49 Glass and glass products 1.739 0.99 1.73

33 50 Ceramic goods 1.950 0.76 1.47

37 54 Iron and steel 4.061 2.52 10.25

41 57-61 Structural metal products 6.805 2.00 13.60

44 70-72 Electric motors and generators etc 1.371 0.94 1.29

Total 61.168

combined option - 40% house with 30% replacement

existing stock - 1/3 replaced by 2050 2900 2900 2772 2420 1931



exg dwelling efficiency gha per

dw 1.48 1.41 1.19 0.82

energy EF in exg gha 4.3 3.90 2.87 1.57

new dwelling efficiency BedZed2 gha per

dw 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16

energy EF in new gha/cap 0.02 0.10 0.22


total EF / cap from HH energy demand

0.63 0.57 0.42 0.25

combined option - 40% house with 50% replacement

existing stock - 1/2 replaced by 2050

2900 2900 2682 2122 1436



exg dwelling efficiency gha per

dw 1.48 1.41 1.19 0.82

energy EF in exg gha 4.3 3.78 2.52 1.17


dw 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16




0.63 0.55 0.38 0.20

combined option - retrofit to 40% house std ovr 30 yrs; add 9K BedZED

2900 2900 2900 2900 2900



exg dwelling efficiency:40% house gha per dw 1.48 1.41 1.19 0.82


new dwelling efficiency BedZed2 gha per dw 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16




combined option - no retrofit; add 12K BedZED

2900 2900 2885 2840 2766



exg dwelling efficiency:40% house gha per

dw 1.48 1.41 1.19 0.82



dw 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16




0.63 0.63 0.62 0.61

SUMMARY OF THE REGION

all figures per capita unless otherwise stated units 2005 2010 2025long range

2050

population 1000s 1000s 6830 6887 7031 7232

households (2004) 1000s 2903 3000 3110 3317

size of household p 2.35 2.30 2.26 2.17

EF 2005 EF 2010 EF 2025long range EF

2050

EF / cap - central projection 6.2 6.55 7.73 10.19

total EF - central projection million.gha 42.35 45.12 54.36 73.69

Household food cons.

Household food cons.Regional

extraction

Regional extraction

Regional production

Regional production

Commercial food cons.

Commercial food cons.

Public food cons.

Public food cons.

Factors: transport &

construction

Factors: transport &

construction

Exported production

Exported production

Production waste / emissions

Exported extraction

Exported extraction

Imported extraction

Imported extraction

Imported production

Imported production

Primary mass

balance

Secondarymass

balance

Demand side mass

balance

Externalities mass balance

Consumer waste /

emissions

Consumer waste /

emissions

Tertiary waste / em

Tertiary waste / em

Secondary waste /

emissions

Secondary waste /

emissions

Primary waste /

emissions

Primary waste /

emissions

Eco-Region NW data framework

National level

Regional level

Sectoral level

Firm level Benchmarking

ASSESS / ENWORKS

2a) Ecological footprint

2b) sectoral footprint

Impacts ActivitiesProduction by sectors

Consumption by factors

Waste & emissions

5a) Sectoral model

(REWARD)

5c) Production

benchmarks

1) Mass balance model

3a) Regional waste

balance

4b) consumption benchmarks

3b) Waste sector

benchmarks

5b) Activity model (Atlas)

4a) Construction benchmarks

upstream downstream

REAP model: Application to Eco-Budget UK

LCA results

0.01 0.1 1 10

CEMENT

BRICK

LIME

STEEL

WINDOWS

TIMBER

INSULATION

CER.TILES

CLAY TILES

AGGREGATE

ECO-TYPE

STANDARD

weighted environmental impact (log scale)

Energy Retrofits to Existing Buildings

– Loft Insulation (100 – 200mm)

– Cavity Wall Insulation– Draught Stripping– Double glazing with low ‘e’

glass– Floor insulation– Gas Central Heating

Controls– Hot Water Tank Insulation– Hot Water Tank Thermostat– Primary Pipework

Insulation– Condensing Boiler– 10% renewables

– Yield 38% CO2 reductions, or

– 5.48 tonnes to 3.62 tonnes CO2/year/dwelling

– 5580 tonnes/yr if applied to approx 3,000 dwellings slated for demolition

– 53% reduction in EF by 2050 assuming 30 year phase-in

Documents

Eco-Region NW: Sustainable Construction CCINW, Manchester, September 6, 2005 Alastair Moore