Assessment of Environmental Loads in the Life Cycle of a Retail and Service Building

Abstract

In order to achieve the European Union’s climate and energy goals, investments are required, mainly in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and infrastructure. Buildings are responsible for almost half of total energy consumption, and nearly 80% of them are energy and ecologically inefficient. The policy of European countries is increasingly more focused on facilities with the highest potential in the areas of energy and matter saving and the possibly circular economy. The aim of the work was to assess the environmental loads occurring in the life cycle of an existing retail and service building. The analysis was performed using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. By using the IMPACT 2002+ model, it has become possible to assess the impact of the life cycle of the studied facility on human health, environmental quality, climate change and raw material resources. The highest level of negative consequences in the above-mentioned areas was recorded for the life cycle with the disposal in the form of landfill storage. The operational stage was the stage in the life cycle that caused the most harmful impacts on the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the ecological and energy consumption of resources, for example, by selecting the size and cubature of the facility for its function, maintaining good technical condition, introducing improvements in the usage processes or implementing solutions aimed at reducing media consumption. As a result of the conducted analyses, it can be noticed that in the future, the reduction in energy consumption in the operation of buildings will be of fundamental importance.