English

This paper outlines progress in the THERMIE Target project Energy Comfort 2000 after three and a half years. Seven of the eight buildings are under construction and the eighth will be starting on site in May 1997. The project covers the design, construction, commissioning and monitoring of the buildings which are offices, university buildings, and public and recreational buildings, together with "horizontal activities" which link the projects together.

This paper describes and discusses the energy saving design features of the Learning Resources Centre at Anglia Polytechnic University. As part of the University's policy on environmental conservation, the design brief for this new Queen's Building specified a low energy passive design solution. The building, which has been occupied since September 1994, was awarded a THERMIE grant to demonstrate a 50% reduction in the annual energy related carbon dioxide emissions for a building of this type.

The LCA methodology [SETAC] is applied to buildings. The system limits, functional units and allocation principles are explained. Inventories have been established for 150 buildings materials and linked to the ECOINVENT database. Buildings are described on the basis of specifications which are aggregated to (cost planning)-elements. There is a catalogue of several hundred elements. Energy needs, costs and environmental impact are calculated simultaneously. Different views are possible (type of Impact. life time phase, element).

Environmental assessment of building elements and buildings requires environmental data related to the entire life cycle of the materials, inventory tools and assessment models for environmental impacts important to buildings. For that reason environmental data have been collected for a number of building materials in a project linked to a major Danish project on Environmental Management in Building Design.

Indoor Air Quality analysis needs at first an accurate prediction of indoor pollutant concentration levels. However, most of pollutant concentration prediction models consider the pollutants as passive elements. Our study introduces the more common gas-phase chemical reactions occurring in indoor spaces. We developed a model taking into account more than 20 different reactions influencing the concentration level prediction of NOx compounds, ozone, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide from the knowledge acquired in the field of tropospheric chemistry.

With the improvement of thermal building Insulation the percentage of energy losses due to air exchange becomes an increasingly· important factor in building energy demand. In order to optimize infiltration and ventilation and to minimize the energy demand of low energy buildings, it is necessary to install an appropriate mechanical ventilation system. Different ventilation strategies can be used: Extract ventilation and supply I extract ventilation systems for buildings as well as single-zone ventilation units with or without heat recovery.

How should environmental profiles be used for construction materials? An environmental profile is a graphical presentation of environmental burdens. The concept may be used to present the results from a number of different stages within an LCA. The most effective use of profiles for materials and products in buildings has yet to be established; whether they should present raw data or data which have been interpreted and to what stage in the life of the material they should be applied.

This paper sets out the monitoring results of the York Energy Demonstration Project (YEDP), carried out under the UK Government's Greenhouse Programme. Energy savings of up to 50% were observed as a result of incorporating energy efficiency measures into housing modernisation programmes. The project also provided insights into a number of replication issues.

The goal of sustainable development will be impossible to achieve without realignment of value creation by business arid the public sector. The environmental impacts of building activities are serious. There is a need for new competencies, better information about the environmental attributes of buildings, and suitable tools with which to achieve better eco-efficiency in practice. An aggressive commitment to developing and spreading the use of the Eco Profile method will provide a cost-efficient and attitude-changing environmental policy tool.