LEEDing with LCA & EPDs - PDF Free Download

A business unit of AISI www.recycle-steel.org LEEDing with LCA & EPDs MBA Green Builders Symposium October 15 th, 2015

Presentation Objectives Background on AISI/SRI LCA Overview Whole Building LCA LEED v4 credits Whole Building LCA tools PCRs/EPDs LEED v4 credits EPD examples LCA in other green building programs, codes, and standards

American Iron & Steel Institute http://www.steel.org/

Steel Recycling Institute http://www.recycle-steel.org/

N. American Steel Industry Overview Direct employment of over 150,000 people in the U.S. Steel shipments of 98 million tons in 2014 81% recycling rate in 2013 (higher in construction) Voluntary 32% reduction in energy intensity since 1990

Sustainable Construction is Here to Stay!

Overview of LEED

LEED v4 BD+C What has changed? Clear focus on transparency and performance New Integrative Process credit incentivizes LEED considerations at project start New credit category to address project location and transportation considerations Incorporates international requirements o LEED is used in over 145 countries Complete rewrite of Materials & Resources section o Whole-building LCA o EPDs o Disclosure of Chemical Ingredients o Responsible Extraction of Raw Materials

Product Life Cycle

Life Cycle Assessment LCA is a standardized technique to assess potential environmental impacts associated with a product, process, or service ISO 14040:2006 (en) Environmental management Life Cycle Assessment Principles and Framework

Collection of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Data Water Emissions Materials Materials Energy Product Manufacture Water Product Waste Co-Products & Materials for Recovery

Collection of LCI Data Emissions Emissions Emissions Emissions Emissions M/E/H2O M/E/H2O M/E/H2O M/E/H2O M/E/H2O Raw Material Extraction Materials Manufacture Product Manufacture Use End-of-life Treatment W/CP W/CP W/CP MR W/CP W/CP MR M/E/H2O = Materials, Energy, and Water MR = Materials for Recovery (e.g., steel scrap) W/CP = Wastes and Co-products Adapted from: T. Gloria, Life Cycle Assessment: A Tutorial, Greenbiz webinar, Feb. 19, 2013

LCI Data North American LCI datasets available for these products: Hot Rolled Coil Cold Rolled Coil Hot Dip Galvanized Plate Sections (interim) Rebar (interim) Pickled Hot Rolled Coil Finished Cold Rolled Coil Tinplate New LCI data being collected globally this year.

LCI Data

LCI Data Sources Primary Product manufacturers Retailers Suppliers Industry associations (average data) Secondary or average Literature and published LCA reports Public and proprietary databases GaBi databases (licensed) up to 5,000 datasets Ecoinvent databases (licensed) 2,000+ datasets NREL U.S. LCI Database (free) 3,000+ datasets ILCD (free) over 36 linked data libraries

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) Most commonly reported Additional impacts: Human health toxicity Eco-toxicity Resource depletion (fossil fuel and mineral) Land use change Habitat disruption Source: Architectural Record, Continuing Education Center

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)

Necessity of LCIA Inventory: Emission Amount (kg) Share Significance Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) 2,000 98.90% High? Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) 20 0.10% Low? Sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) 2 0.01% Very low? Impact Assessment: Emission Equivalence (GWP) GWP Contribution (kg CO 2 eq) Share Significance CO 2 1 2,000 3.7% Low N 2 O 298 5,960 11.1% Moderate SF 6 22,800 45,600 85.1% High Adapted from: T. Gloria, Life Cycle Assessment: A Tutorial, Greenbiz webinar, Feb. 19, 2013

Benefits of LCA Credibly, transparently assess and report potential environmental impacts across entire product life cycle Examine tradeoffs for between life cycle stages and/or impacts product development, decision-making, policy initiatives Hot spot identification areas for improvement, best practices Fair comparisons between competing materials

LEED v4 BD+C Materials and Resources Possible Points: 13 Y Prereq 1 Storage and Collection of Recyclables Required Y Prereq 2 Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning Required Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction Credit 1 5 Building Product Disclosure and Optimization - Environmental Product Declarations Credit 2 2 Building Product Disclosure and Optimization - Sourcing of Raw Materials Credit 3 2 Credit 4 Building Product Disclosure and Optimization - Material Ingredients 2 Construction and Demolition Waste Management Credit 5 2 Total Possible Points: 110 C ert if ied 4 0 t o 4 9 p o int s Silver 50 t o 59 p o int s Go ld 6 0 t o 79 p o int s Plat inum 8 0 t o 110

LEED v4 BD+C Building Life Cycle Impact Reduction (5 points) Intent: encourage adaptive reuse and optimize environmental performance of products and materials Four options, including full or partial building reuse Option 1: Historic building reuse (5 points) Option 2: Renovation of abandoned or blighted building (5 points) Option 3: Building and material reuse (2-4 points) Option 4: Whole-building Life Cycle Assessment (3 points)

LEED v4 BD+C Option 4 Whole-building LCA Building structure and enclosure Cradle-to-grave (excluding operational energy) Baseline and proposed buildings must be of comparable: Size Function Orientation Operating energy performance as defined in EA Prerequisite Minimum Energy Performance. Building service life: at least 60 years. Use the same LCA software tools and ISO 14044 compliant data sets. Narrative describing LCA assumptions, scope, baseline building, and proposed building.

LEED v4 BD+C Option 4 Whole-building LCA Design must show 10% reduction in at least 3 of the following vs. reference building (one must be GWP): Global warming potential (kg CO 2 e); Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer (kg CFC-11); Acidification of land and water sources (moles H + or kg SO 2 ); Eutrophication (kg nitrogen or kg phosphate); Formation of tropospheric ozone (kg NO x or kg ethene); and Depletion of nonrenewable energy resources (MJ). No impact category may increase by more than 5%.

Whole Building LCA Source: Athena Sustainable Materials Institute

Whole Building LCA Comprehensive LCA software GaBi SimaPro OpenLCA Whole Building LCA-specific tools Athena Impact Estimator (referenced in LEED) Tally (accepted by USGBC) etoollcd buildlca (worldsteel) Guidance Documents AIA (2010) Athena Sustainable Materials Institute (2014) In-development: USGBC, Structural Engineering Institute

Whole Building LCA - Athena Impact Estimator Free software specifically mentioned in LEED v4 Intended to make LCA accessible to designers Limited understanding of LCA necessary (good and bad!) Can model over 1,200 structural and envelope assembly combinations BOM import from any CAD program Version 5.1.01 released July 2015

Whole Building LCA - Athena Impact Estimator

Whole Building LCA

Tally A joint development project from KT Innovations, PE International, and Autodesk. http://choosetally.com/

Whole Building LCA - Tally Annual licensing fees Requires use (and costs) of Autodesk Revit model Cradle-to-grave whole building scope Manufacturing, maintenance and replacement, and end-of-life Currently excludes impacts from construction and operational energy

Whole Building LCA - Tally

LEED v4 BD+C Next 3 M&R credits have a two-part focus: Part 1 = Disclosure Part 2 = Optimization Disclosure (noun): Transparency of product supply chains, ingredients, and life-cycle impacts Optimization (verb): Reward for products meeting thresholds or benchmarks for performance Market Transformation

LEED v4 BD+C Building Product Disclosure and Optimization Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) Intent: To encourage the use of products and materials for which life-cycle information is available and that have environmentally, economically and socially preferable life-cycle impacts. To reward project teams for selecting products from manufacturers who have verified improved environmental life-cycle impacts.

LEED v4 BD+C Building Product Disclosure and Optimization EPDs (2 points) Option 1 (1 point) EPDs for 20 different products from at least 5 manufacturers Product Specific Type III EPD = 1 product Industry-wide (generic) EPDs = ½ product Product Specific Declarations (LCA) = ¼ product

LEED v4 BD+C Building Product Disclosure and Optimization EPDs (2 points) Option 2 (1 point) Multi-attribute Optimization : must meet one of the following (50% of total cost) Third party certified products demonstrate impact reduction below industry average in at least three of six impact categories Products sourced (extracted, manufactured, purchased) within 100 miles are valued at 200% their base contributing cost

Building Products LCA & EPDs Source: Athena Sustainable Materials Institute

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)

Background on PCRs/EPDs Note: Not every LCA comes from a PCR or leads to an EPD Caution: EPDs can appear more comprehensive than they are. Source: BuildingGreen, Inc., The Product Transparency Movement: Peeking Behind the Corporate Veil, December 27, 2011.

Product Category Rules A set of detailed rules, requirements, and guidelines for developing Type III environmental declarations for specific product categories http://pcr-library.edf.org.tw/

Background on PCRs/EPDs Who is Involved? Source: Architectural Record, Continuing Education Center

Background on PCRs/EPDs Overarching standards for life cycle assessment Principles & procedures for Type III EPDs Framework & basic requirements for a building products PCR Core PCR for construction product EPDs e.g., PR EN 16485 for wood EPDs Source: Adapted from ArcelorMittal presentation, worldsteel LCA Expert Group, October 2013.

Steel Construction Product PCR

Industry-wide Steel EPD: In-progress

Manufacturer-specific Steel EPD

Limitations Potential environmental impacts All relevant environmental impacts should be considered Only one of several environmental management techniques (e.g., risk assessment, environmental impact assessment, auditing) Assumptions and data sources can significantly affect results Comparability proceed with caution *Transparency and communication is key!

LCA Other Building Programs/Standards Green Building Ratings Programs Green Globes BSR/GBI 01-201X, Public Comment Draft: Whole Building LCA and EPDs Living Building Challenge 3.0: product carbon footprint Building Standards/Codes IgCC 2012: Whole Building LCA (EPD provisions in next version) ASHRAE 189.1: Whole Building LCA

Coming Soon!

Questions?? Brandie M. Sebastian, LCACP Manager, Life Cycle Assessment Steel Recycling Institute (412) 458-5819 bsebastian@steel.org