We are witnessing a profound change towards a new and necessary
relationship with the building stock in Spain, which needs to change from a
repairing-based culture to a building sustainability management culture, by which
active prevention, conservation and maintenance increase the quality of life of the
occupants thereof and reduce use and maintenance costs. To achieve the foregoing
goals, new reliable tools are required which shall provide values for significant
indicators in relation to building sustainability. The main aim of this paper is to
define a model to evaluate the environmental impacts associated to the energy
retrofit of building envelopes in order to assign them a value by means of recognized
sustainability indicators. Indeed, this evaluation model aims to contribute to the
development of a tool to support designers, which shall allow them to compare the
environmental behavior of different alternatives for the envelope retrofit. The
proposed methodology is based on the application of a simplified LCA. The defined
evaluation model provides values for the following indicators: CO2 emissions;
energy consumption; consumption of potable water; hazardous and non-hazardous
waste; and maintenance costs. It makes the designer’s tasks of comparison and
selection easier by means of the characterization of building envelope retrofit
alternatives which combine different materials which are involved in construction
assemblies and solutions. It also provides a comparative scale that allows the
deployment of the impacts of each of the life cycle phases of the building which
provides for the easy detection of the most critical phase or impact thereof.
Keywords: Building energy retrofit, building envelope, building sustainability
management, designer support, durability, existing buildings, evaluation model,
Life Cycle Analysis, maintenance costs, refurbishment, sustainability indicators.
