Measuring whole-building performance with dynamic LCA: a case study of a green university building

This paper presents initial results of an ongoing project to monitor energy consumption and indoor environmental quality in a green university building, and to include the measured data in a dynamic life cycle assessment (DLCA) of the building. DLCA can be defined as an approach to life cycle assessment (LCA) that explicitly incorporates dynamic process modelling in the context of temporal and spatial variations in the surrounding industrial and environmental systems. DLCA has been suggested to be important for buildings due to their long lifetimes, during which they may undergo significant operational changes. An important part of the dynamic process modeling component is the measurement of actual data to validate or refine predictive models. A static LCA of the building was completed, including construction materials and a whole-building energy model. An initial DLCA was conducted incorporating estimates of future industrial and environmental factors, exemplified by energy mixes and emissions factors from energy production. Partial data from the building's operations were compared to energy model predictions and then incorporated into the DLCA model. Results showed substantial differences between impacts due to estimated actual energy consumption and energy model results, suggesting that that monitoring of buildings' actual performance over time is crucial to the accuracy of building LCA.