• Ryberg, Morten Walbech
• Ravn, Anders Stokbro
• Andersen, Rune

Abstract

This study presents a comparative life-cycle assessment (LCA) of twoalternatives for the end-of-life handling of steel façade cladding fromdemolished buildings. The main objective is to investigate theenvironmental benefits of eighteen different environmental impactcategories to indicate the respective potential impacts of the twodemolition alternatives. We compare the selective demolition of façadecladding and the cladding's subsequent reuse with a conventionaldemolition scenario in which steel cladding is recycled as scrap. Thestudy therefore expands the existing data foundation on selectivedemolition to support future decisions on the reuse of buildingcomponents. The LCA was performed using parametric modeling tofacilitate a thorough sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of theresults. Results show that the environmental impact across all impactcategories was generally lower for the selective scenario compared tothe conventional demolition baseline scenario over the total evaluatedlife-cycle. However, we also see that the impacts related to the actualdemolition process are higher for selective demolition due to the longeroperating times of heavy machinery. This study contributes newknowledge on selective demolition processes, which can supportdecision-makers in choosing the most sustainable demolition practice.Through a comparison with the production of new products, it alsobecomes clear that there are environmental benefits to reusingcomponents from demolition in connection with new constructions.Overall, this can help reduce the environmental impact of theconstruction sector.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• steel