Renewable versus non-renewable building fabric: A comparative study on the effect of material choice on the embodied energy and global warming potential of low energy dwellings

The built environment causes damaging environmental impacts through processes such as material extraction, manufacture, transport, construction, maintenance, demolition and disposal, and the operational energy of buildings. Building and fabric design is driven by statutory requirements to conserve operational energy in response to climate change mitigation. Very low energy in use building standards such as Passive House have been developed and these standards require careful and rigorous design incorporating heavily insulated fabric, solar heat gains, heat recovery, and non conventional heat distribution systems.
This paper examines how material choice can contribute to overall thermal performance and also potentially sequester carbon within the building fabric which in turn might offset operational energy emissions. A house is modelled with two different specifications of fabric design, both achieving the Passive House standard. The implications of material choices on energy in use and the Embodied Energy and Global Warming Potential (both positive and negative) are explored.