LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTED RESIDENTIAL HOUSES REGARDING TO THE BUILDING MATERIALS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Building construction plays important role in a sustainable development because of constructed environment great influence on life quality and health. Thus the selection of building materials used can significantly affect the environment and human health. Nowadays, the environmental evaluation of buildings and building materials is of great interest not only of many researchers but public authorities and professionals as well. This paper provides a comparison of environmental impacts of a wooden house in terms of used building materials. A number of studies have been devoted to assessing LCA indicators such as Primary Energy Intensity and Global Warming Potential. However, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the LCA results within the "cradle to gate" boundaries for used materials using much more indicators of the evaluation process (abiotic depletion, eutrophication potential, ozone layer depletion potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, human toxicity potential, fresh water aquatic eco-toxicity potential, marine aquatic eco-toxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity). The average global warming potential per 1 m(2) of houses reached the value of 2.2E03 kg CO(2)eq/m(2) while acidification potential has been calculated to be of 3.3 kg SO(2)eq/m(2) per floor area. Terrestrial ecotoxicity and fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity have been calculated much lower than for the masonry houses.