Decarbonisation roadmap for the building activities: LCA modelling of the renovation lever

Abstract

Renovation of the existing building stock plays a central role in every decarbonisation scenario. Yet, its impact is rarely addressed in a life-cycle perspective, leading to potential over benefits and neglecting the cross-sectoral impacts that it generates. This article introduces the methodology developed as part of the building activities decarbonisation roadmap to quantify the effect of renovation on operational and embodied greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). It focuses on describing the modelling tools that are used to create prospective decarbonisation pathways from a georeferenced database. In particular, the macro component approach used to describe the materiality of existing buildings and renovation packages, as well as the energy simulation tool used to quantify energy saving measures are introduced. Explorative scenarios are modelled based on different renovation levels, renovation packages and targeted buildings to investigate the whole-life GHGE by 2030 and 2050. Preliminary static results underline the necessity to consider embodied GHGE and to introduce an optimisation approach to target the buildings with the highest GHGE savings potential.