Evaluation of the environmental sustainability of a low energy residential building with the LCA methodology

A detailed case study Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted of a single unit low energy residential building located in northern Italy. As the house was designed with the objective of lowering the winter heat requirement to one tenth of a standard building according to the most restrictive Italian regulations, the overall objective of the research was to understand the energy and environmental benefits in a life cycle perspective. The study confirmed that the overall goals of sustainability were reached, but with a lower extent. The contribution analysis showed that embodied environmental burdens are higher than those relevant to the use-phase and the recycling potential plays a remarkable role, thus confirming the need of LCA to carefully assess sustainability of low energy buildings.