Co-supervisioning of Msc Thesis: Developing and Testing a Tool for the Detection of Environmental Trade-Offs in the Pursuit of Low-Carbon Buildings

Description

Abstract: Climate change and biodiversity loss pose a critical threat to humanity by risking abrupt and destabilising environmental shifts. This study aims to assess potential shifts in the environmental burden from climate to off-site biodiversity impacts, when replacing conventional products with biogenic products to reduce climate impacts in buildings in Denmark. The study assessed environmental impacts through a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the case study ”Wood in Construction”, which contains six building typologies (BT), each with four variants (cases) featuring an increasing replacement of conventional building products with biogenic alternatives. The assessment was carried out using three tools: LCAbyg for climate impact calculation, the Doughnut Biotool (Biotool v1) and an updated version (Biotool v2) for off-site biodiversity impact evaluation. The study developed Biotool v2 with new biodiversity impact factors for products used in the case study and energy reflecting the Danish energy grid from 2025 to 2075. The study found that with Biotool v1, energy is the
main contributor to biodiversity impact across all cases. However, using Biotool v2 the impact from building products increased but reduced operational energy impact by 74-80%, resulting in a lower total biodiversity impact. As product impacts dominate, the study emphasises the importance of considering them when selecting building products. This study found that replacing conventional building products with biogenic alternatives reduces climate impact but increases biodiversity impact, highlighting a shift in environmental burden. Furthermore, the study makes a valuable contribution to the limited research on assessing off-site biodiversity impacts in the construction sector. The study highlights the need for further research, including applying an Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment (AESA) to evaluate whether the observed burden shifts are problematic when compared against planetary boundaries. This approach could help the industry prioritise design choices.

Period	26 Aug 2024 → 9 Mar 2025
Degree of Recognition	Local