Environmental performance evaluation of thermal insulation materials and its impact on the building

E. Giama*1, A. M. Papadopoulos Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering Aristotle University Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece * e-mail:fgiama@aix.meng.auth.gr, tel. +30 2310 996048, fax. +2310 996012

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to examine the buildings environmental performance through the insulations material selection. Contemporary insulation materials achieve thermal conductivity values of less than 0.04 W/(mK), whilst a plethora of materials, which fulfil specific requirements like mechanical and physical features according to the object specific specifications, can be found in the market. Still, the latter is dominated by inorganic fibrous materials and organic foamy ones, which were the subject of this study. The two materials production process was registered and evaluated based on environmental criteria with Life Cycle Analysis implementation, which was supported by the GEMIS model. The results obtained were used to set operating performance indicators and environmental condition indicators based on the ISO 14031 standard and accomplish the Environmental Performance Evaluation for the two materials. Moreover, insulation materials life cycle correlation to buildings life cycle examined and expressed with energy consumption indicators. Keywords: Environmental performance evaluation, stone-wool, extruded polystyrene, Life Cycle Analysis

Efrosini Giama, Dipl. Mechanical Engineer, MSc on Environmental Science.

Graduated at the Mechanical Engineering Department of Aristotle University Thessaloniki. Since 2000 research associate and PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, working on buildings environmental evaluation. 1

INTRODUCTION The necessity to improve the buildings' energy behaviour resulted initially from the necessity to reduce the energy consumed for their heating, ventilation and airconditioning. The energy consumption in the building sector constitutes a major part (40%) of the annual EU final energy use (European Commission, 2001). The most significant part of this amount of energy is consumed for space heating while the cooling demands, although still relative small, show a steeply increasing trend. In the last three decades an impressive progress has been made in this field, due to the application of the principles of buildings bioclimatic design and enhanced thermal protection. This development is examplified in the evolution of the legislative framework in Germany, which led to an increase of thermal insulation thickness from 5 cm in 1975 to the current valid minimum of 20 cm. As a result, the average specific annual consumption dropped from 300 kWh/m2a in 1970 to 50 kWh/m2a currently. (Papadopoulos et al., 2001). Given the fact that a buildings orientation and its architectural features are subject to restrictions imposed by the densely built urban environment and also by architectural wishes and restrictions, thermal insulation remains a vital tool towards optimisation of building's energy behaviour (Niachou et al, 2001). However, and besides energy conservation purposes, the need for an optimisation of the buildings energy behaviour has been enforced by the scientific and public debates focused on the quality of the urban environment. More energy efficient buildings reduce the quantities of fossil fuels consumed and thereby reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, particularly on a micro- and mesoscale. It has been estimated that in the U.S.A thermal insulation of buildings is responsible for the reduction of carbon dioxide by 780 million tones annually (Crane at al., 2002). The Directive 2002/91/EC on the energy performance of buildings shifts
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towards the direction of improving the buildings overall energy efficiency (European Commission, 2003). It suggests that buildings should be designed and built in such a way that the amount of primary energy required to operate them will be low and that further measures to improve the energy performance of existing buildings should taken in action. It also introduces the energy performance certificate of a building. In order to minimise the buildings energy consumption by means of thermal protection of its shell, insulating materials with low conductivity values, pf less than 0.04 W/(mK), have been developed. The most widely used categories of insulating materials are inorganic fibrous (glass-wool and stone-wool) and organic foamy ones (expanded and extruded polystyrene and, to a smaller extend, polyurethane), whilst all other materials cover the remaining 10% of the market (mainly wood-wool). More exotic materials, like transparent insulating ones and ecological materials based on agricultural raw materials have found limited penetration in the market, mainly because of their high cost. The most widely used insulation materials in the European market are mineral wool and polystyrene, in their main forms of stone wool and mineral wool and extruded and expanded polystyrenes respectively (SAPPEK, 2004). Another point that became important during the last decade is the environmental and health aspect arising during the production of insulating materials and the construction and operation of the building. This becomes apparent, when considering the fact that insulation materials have side effects from the stage of their production until the end of their useful lifetime, which exceed by large the typical buildings lifetime (Papadopoulos et al., 2005).

ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION PROCESS The decision process can be supported by different types of information related to a chain perspective which consists on some basic steps supported by tools and
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methodologies and focusing always on the decisions implementation. The decision process requires first of all issue definition, criteria setting, data and options generation, conclusions evaluation and finally decisions selection and implementation. The matter of decision making process is a multicriteria issue where a lot of tools and methods combinations can be done. The basic criteria for choosing tools at the decision process are the final goal and the quality of data required. In order to accomplish sustainability and evaluate environmentally a process or a product there are several methods and tools to choose. It depends on the available data, the time spent, the supportive technical elements supplied and the analysis depth required. The decision process is an interactive process where the results from one type of analysis are used for another methodology. Based on data provided from the Chain Analysis for Environmental Decision Support by Wrisberg et al. the Concepts are defined as the idea on how to achieve sustainability, for instance Concepts are the life cycle thinking, the design for the environment, e.t.c. On the other hand tools are the operational methods which support the Concepts. Analytical tools provide information as to the consequences of a choice while procedural tools focus on procedures to guide the way to reach the decision. All types of tools are supported by technical elements such as models, quality assessment, softwares. The technical elements may also stand alone as tools for supporting the basic Concepts. Figure 1 depicts the environmental tools and Concepts contribution to the decision process. The technical elements are supported by data. Analytical tools are modeling the subject in a quantitative or qualitative way aiming at providing information for taking more reliable decisions (Wrisberg et al, 1999). The focus of analytical tools is on computational algorithms and requires quantitative data. Qualitative analytical tools may both use qualitative and quantitative data such as checklists, issue analysis, etc. An analytical tool may support a decision process with or
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without the synergy of another analytical tool. A multi-criteria analysis is an analytical tool which supports the combination of different types of tools with different types of outcomes. At this case study analytical and procedural tools collaborated in order to achieve the environmental evaluation and the indicators setting for two thermal insulation materials production process. More specific, from the analytical tools category Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Input and Output Analysis have been implemented to stone-wools and extruded polystyrenes (xps) production process. From the procedural tools Environmental Performance Evaluation and Environmental Impact Assessment applied to both thermal insulation materials production processes. The goal was to prove the extent of environmental tools synergy and accomplish the operating performance and condition indicators setting based on the ISO 14031 guidelines. Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE) is a new term used to describe a formal process of measuring, analyzing, reporting, and communicating an organizations environmental performance with respect to criteria set by its management. The process involves collecting information and measuring how effectively an organization manages its environmental aspects on an ongoing basis. Certain concepts and components of EPE have been applied for more than a decade whilst the application of EPE by organizations aims at obtaining ecoefficiency. The tools and methods used mostly for EPE are, the Environmental Indicator Systems (EPI), the Environmental Management Accounting (EMA), the Environmental Management Systems (EMS), the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and the Eco labelling. In Figure 2 is presented the basic methodology for obtaining EPE and some common methodologies for accomplishing the environmental performance.

At this case study the interaction between ISO 14031 and ISO 14040-42 will lead to environmental evaluation and comparison of two thermal insulating materials (ISO 14040-42 is referring to Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology). More specific, LCA is applied (based on the ISO 1404042 standard) to stone wools and extruded polystyrenes production. The results from the analytical tools were used at the procedural in order to set environmental and condition indicators based on ISO 14031 guidelines. Within a LCA the operational material and energy flows are systematically identified. By combination with material, important environmental aspects are easily identified and specific environmental effects within the scope of the impact assessment are quantified. The concept of LCA is therefore based on (a) the consideration of the entire life cycle which includes raw material extraction and processing, production and use, up to recycling and disposal, (b) the coverage of all environmental impacts connected with the life cycle such as emissions to air, water and soil, wastes, raw material consumption or land use and (c) the aggregation of the environmental effects in consideration of possible impacts and evaluation in order to give oriented environmental decision support. After implementing the LCA methodology, the results produced indicated a series of environmental impacts, which have to be monitored and studied by setting environmental performance indicators. Based on this philosophy some basic environmental impacts, which occurred to be more significant, comparing to others, were quantified by the LCA methodology. The environmental aspects examined are the following: Energy consumption and environmental effects

 Materials consumption and waste prevention Consumption of hazardous and environmentally harmful substances Other environmental impacts such as land use, water consumption, e.t.c. The combination of the environmental tools selection lead to results capable to accomplish EPE at the production process of stone wool and extruded polystyrene. The paragraph following describes the indicators setting process based on data deriving from the environmental evaluation process.

ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS SETTING AS A RESULT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION PROCESS The Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE) is a process of operational management which a lot of companies implement in order to monitor their environmental performance. So EPE is a methodology adopted by companies for supervising their operations based not only to economic and quality criteria but also to environmental criteria and it is based on the principle what gets measured, gets managed (Putnam 2002) . In our study the company which produces insulation materials implemented the indicators for observing its environmental performance, after evaluating the production processes on the based of environmental criteria and by meanas of specified environmental tools. In order to obtain EPE it is essential to focus firstly on planning. Planning efforts concern the indicators application. For trustworthy results and efficient environmental evaluation the important point in planning is to have an overall view of the organizations environmental profile and thats why ISO 14031 needs support from others standards such as ISO 14001 or ISO 14040 which identify, quantify the

organizations environmental aspects and determine which of those aspects are more significant by implementing an evaluation system. The two basic types of indicators used for environmental evaluation are: Environmental Condition Indicators (ECI) This type of indicators describes effects in the environment, for example, it gives emphasis in the gas emissions effect in the local atmospheric quality, or the effect of humid waste in water channels near a production area. This indicators category focus on specified environmental impacts and evaluates impacts such as greenhouse effect, eutrophication, biodiversity reduction, e.t.c. Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) The EPI are subdivided to: Management Performance Indicators (MPI) This category is referring to environmental indicators which provide information mainly on the administrations efforts, measures and its contribution to the overall organizations environmental management. Operational Performance Indicators (OPI) These indicators are related mainly to materials consumption, energy management, waste and emissions production and evaluate the real environmental aspects of organizations. They are subdivided in quantitative and energy indicators and they are usually set after an inflows-outflows analysis. Examples of such indicators include the electricity or heat per products production unit consumption, the total waste produced per products production unit, e.t.c. OPIs constitute the base of internal and external communication for environmental data when EMS (especially on EMAS implementation) are implemented to the organizations structure.

The indicators set for EPE are based on ISO 14031 guidelines (Figure 3). Within the analysis framework the OPIs concerning materials and energy inputs and outputs flows for stone wools and xps production system were quantified. Moreover and with LCAs methodology collaboration the ECIs were defined, calculated and categorised as it is depicted in Figure 3. The quantified indicators will facilitate the evaluation process and the efficient insulation materials comparison.

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION The initial data for the insulation materials production process were obtained from FIBRAN SA, a Greek industry which produces insulating materials and has become one of the leading European polystyrene manufacturers. The LCA methodology was implemented in order to quantify specified data for indicators setting based on ISO 14031 standards guidelines. The goal was to create efficient indicators for obtaining environmental performance evaluation and prepare the industrys structure for other environmental standards such as ISO 14001. The main steps followed within the LCA frame are mentioned below: STEP 1: Goal definition Systems boundaries The system analyzed, consists of two main subsystems: production processes of stone wool, including the extraction of raw materials and energy use, auxiliary activities (for instance resin production required for stone wools production), products packing, storage and transportation and electric energy production as electricity is used in order to melt the initial rock mixture in the ovens. The electricity used is produced from lignite-fired power plants. STEP 2: Inventory Analysis

The second step is an inventory of quantitative and qualitative data. At this phase the initial data are elaborated by a calculating model. The model used was GEMIS (a synoptic description of the model used is presented at the following paragraph). STEP 3: Classification Based on the inventory analysis the input and output flows are defined and quantified by GEMIS model. At this step the results from the inventory analysis were transformed to quantified environmental impacts. The classification coefficients used, were taken from Sima-Pro, Eco-Indicator 95 software, Europe g. The reason is that GEMIS classification data referred only to greenhouse effect and acidification while the Sima Pro indicators covered a larger field of environmental impacts. It is important at this point to mention that the other analytical and procedural environmental tools selected for the environmental evaluation of the insulation materials production processes (the Environmental Input and Output Analysis and the Environmental Impact Analysis) were embodied and implemented as separate steps within the frame of LCA, the analysis of which is discussed in the following paragraph. Stone wools production systems processes Stone wool production system consists of the following main processes: creation of the raw material mixture which consists of bauxite and amphibolite, melting the initial rock mixture in electric ovens, resin production, resin addition to the initial raw materials mixture, silicone, water and oil addition to the new mixture, forming the new mixture, strengthening the new mixture into a polymerization oven,
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compressing and cutting the final product, product packing, product temporary storage, product transport.

It is noted that both resin production and auxiliary material addition are auxiliary activities to the basic production activity. Moreover, the environmental impacts caused by electric energy production were also included to the environmental impacts assessment. The electric energy production from lignite-fired power plants was added as a subsystem to the main system and was analyzed by GEMIS. In Figure 5 are depicted the basic steps of stone wools production process.

Extruded polystyrenes production systems processes The extruded polystyrenes production process, which is depicted in Figure 6, consists of the following steps: supply the production line with the initial mixture (the production line consists of two extruders), supply the first extruder with polystyrene and additive substances, mix and increase the mixtures viscosity, infuse the mixture under high pressure condition and temperature (200 oC), mixtures diffusion, complete additives diffusion in the polymers mass and control progressive refrigeration of the mixture at the second extruder, change the materials flow from cylindrical to flat form in the head drawing, mixture s exit in atmospheric pressure, mixtures expansion at the appropriate thickness at forming plates,
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cut and freeze the final product at the environmental temperature, products packing, products temporary storage and products transport

The LCA of the extruded polystyrene production was supported by the GEMIS model.

LCAs calculating model description GEMIS (Global Emission Model for Integrated Systems) is a life-cycle analysis model which embodies LCA database and cost emission analysis system. It evaluates environmental impacts of energy, material and transport systems, i.e. air emissions (SO2, NOx, particulates, CO, NMVOC etc.), greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O etc.), solid / liquid wastes and land use. In brief GEMIS includes: Database system: the database offers environmental and cost data for energy, material and transport systems, including their life-cycles. The environmental data cover air emissions (SO2, NOx, particulates, CO, HCl, HF, H2S, NH3, NMVOC), greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFC, PFC, SF6), liquid effluents (BOD, COD, N), solid wastes (ashes etc.) and land-use. Analysis system: it contains full life-cycle impacts of energy, transport and material technologies. Evaluation tool: it evaluates external costs and quantifies the systems outputs.

ISO 14031 INTERACTION TO LCA ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS After calculating the inputs (raw materials and energy) and outputs (solid and liquid waste and air emissions) flows for the insulation materials production the data were quantified and transformed into environmental impacts such as eutrofication,
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greenhouse effect, energy use, etc Therefore, the LCA was used as a tool in order to quantify the environmental impacts and set the necessary environmental parameters for the Environmental Performance Evaluation based on ISO 14031 guidelines. More specific, the inventory analysis stage from LCA methodology implementation was used to define Operation Performance Indicators (OPIs, details in table 1) and the classification phase was used to set Environmental Condition Indicators (ECIs, details in table 2). The LCAs methodology assistance to the assessing performance is of major importance because it provides the organization not only with initial data for the indicators identification, but also it creates a base for the continual assessing performance. Table 1 depicts the selected Environmental Performance Indicators (OPIs) set by ISO 14031 and ISO 14040-42 implementation to stone wools and extruded polystyrenes production system, are presented. The OPIs give data based mainly on inputs and outputs flows (for instance, energy consumption and raw materials consumption, e.t.c.) which come up by the inventory analysis during LCAs implementation. The OPIs constitute the base both for internal (within the organizations structure) and external (between the organization and other interested parties) communication on environmental issues. The indicators are referring to the quantification of environmental impact as it arised from the classification phase on LCA methodology implementation. These indicators belong to Environmental Condition Indicators (ECIs) category and focus mainly on assessment and management of the significant environmental impacts caused by the organizations operation. The ECIs, which are presented in Table 2, are usually applied by public organizations because they include more specialized data. The most noteworthy difference between the insulation materials production system concerned the energy indicator which quantifies the electric energys consumption for the productive processes of stone wool and xps. It is obvious that electric energy is a
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significant parameter for xps production and compared to stone wools production the electric energy consumed is over 150% more. The indicators defining raw materials consumption are similar for the two insulation products and only for some auxiliary materials differences occurred. Therefore, the ECIs indicators deriving from OPIs data processing, through LCA implementation, present the environmental impacts from the production systems analysed. The greenhouse effect arised to be, as it was expected, the most significant environmental impact deriving from insulation materials production process.

IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION OF MATERIALS ON THE BUILDINGS PERFORMANCE There are two characteristic attributes of insulation materials concerning a buildings environmental performance, the contained and the embodied energy. The contained energy is the energy used for the production of the unit mass of the material. It includes the energy for every production process from the extraction of the raw materials till the final placement of material in the building. It is expressed in kWh / kg material. The embodied energy is the energy required for the production and the placement of the necessary quantity of insulation material, capable to insulate one unit of surface, so as to achieve the required heat transfer coefficient. Consequently, in the calculations required in order to decide the adequate quantity of the insulation material the overall U-value of a typical residential building in the Mediterranean is 0,8 W / (m 2 K) and the thermal insulation materials needed to achieve this are calculated accordingly to 8 and 5 cm for stone-wool and extruded polystyrene respectively [Papadopoulos et al, 1998, Santamouris, 2000] . Given the densities of the two materials, 2 and 1,55 kg of mass per square meter were required respectively.

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Moreover, the energy required for the materials production is calculated, which, by and large, coincides with the embodied energy of the materials. Having evaluated the environmental impacts per kg of each thermal insulation material it is easy to estimate the environmental impacts for insulating a house taking as a first scenario insulation with stone-wool and as a second scenario insulation with extruded polystyrene. Taking data from the Hellenic Public Power Corporation concerning the greenhouse effect caused from 1 kWh energy consumption, derived the quantified condition indicators for the greenhouse effect evaluation. In that sense, the equivalence for a typical lignite-fired power plant is 120 CO2 kg/GJ. From the Operational Performance Indicators estimated (table 1) the energy consumption for stone wools production is 0,3 kWh / kg of stone wool and 0,86 kWh / kg extruded polystyrene respectively. Therefore, by choosing stone wool for insulation, the energy consumption is about 0,6 kWh / m2 . The condition indicator set for the greenhouse effect evaluates the environmental impact for insulating 1 m2 . More specific, the environmental impact from 1 m2 insulated by stone wool is 0,8 kg eq. CO2 while the environmental impact when extruded polystyrene is used for insulation is 1,79 kg eq. CO2 based on coefficients deriving from greek data. If, instead, we estimate the greenhouse effect taking into consideration the data given from GEMISs software the greenhouse effect caused by the energy consumption for producing 1 kg of stone wool is 0,39 kg eq. CO2/kg (while the correspondence indicator based on Greek data is 0,4 kg eq. CO2/kg stone wool) and for producing 1 kg of extruded polystyrene is 1,18 kg eq. CO2/kg (based on Greek data 1,15 kg eq. CO2/kg respectively).The difference observed between the two databases are due to primary mixtures prescription used for electric energy production. The Life Cycle Thinking was implemented up to material level, at buildings level the analysis demands data for several stages, materials and processes. More specific,

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buildings life cycle is mainly separated in the following phases: construction, use and end of life use: Construction: structural materials production, auxiliary materials production, electromechanical systems construction and installation, packing structural material and electromechanical systems, systems and materials transportation, work for buildings construction Use: heating, refrigeration, hot water production, lighting, electromechanical installations and operation (e.g. lifts, pumps), appliances and office equipment operation Substantially the "use" phase concerns buildings operations of while the construction phase focus on materials management. End of life: selective sort out of materials and reuse, buildings demolition, materials recycling and reuse, materials transport in deposition spaces It is obvious that for the integrated LCA implementation in the building sector the data required concern life cycle assessment from many different materials and processes. Consequently precise estimations should be taken in order to approach integrate analysis for buildings environmental and energy profile. Moreover, the important parameter of energy consumption calculated at buildings life cycle phases is related to heat insulation.

CONCLUSIONS EPE is expected to have an increasingly important role to play as companies integrate environmental management activities into more broadly based corporate sustainability performance measurement and reporting initiatives. EPE is supported by innovative decisions management tools and methods as well as specified International Standards. As it is already appeared on this case study the EPE based on ISO 14031 guidelines is accomplished by quantified indicators.
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This particulate case study applies ISO 14031 guidelines on quantified data deriving from LCA methodology in order to set environmental indicators and accomplish EPE for the thermal insulation materials examined. Through this analysis it is obvious that environmental standards and tools for environmental management are cooperating in order to accomplish environmental performance to an organization. This case study used analytical and procedural environmental tools based on the Life Cycle Thinking Concept for identifying crucial environmental aspects, quantify environmental impacts and choose efficient parameters for the environmental indicators setting according to ISO 14031 standards guidelines and the organizations needs. Furthermore the EPE in the insulation materials sector is a way to approach the buildings environmental performance and the issue of energy consumption based on the insulation materials selection given quantified indicators in order to prove insulations impact to energy consumption. Finally, the use of any method can only be as successful as the validity of the respective database. In that sense, any results drawn from an environmental study for a building have to be accompanied by a detailed statement on the origins of the basic data used for the evaluation of the building components.

LITERATURE Ford, Glenna, Using Information Technology to Measure, Monitor and Report on Environmental Performance, November 1998 Gameson, Tom: Private Sector Methods for Weighting Environmental Indicators, Final Report for the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission, September 1998 ISO: Terms in ISO 14031, 1999 Karamanos A., Giama E., Hadiarakou S. and Papadopoulos A.M., (2005), A comparative evaluation case study of stone wool and polystyrene Insulation applications, HELECO Conference, Athens

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Karamanos, A., Papadopoulos A.M. and Anastaselos D., (2004), Heat transfer phenomena 19/2004, 1-12 Klopffer W., Hutzinger O., Schmidt A., Ulf Clausen A., Astrup Jensen A. and Kamstrup O., (2003), Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Three Insulation Materials, Report on the research project Kuhre, W. Lee: ISO 14031 Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE), Practical Tools for Conducting an Environmental Performance Evaluation, 1998 Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering (LHTEE) and partners: Design and Development of Innovative Stone Wool Products for the Energy Upgrading of Existing and New Buildings (SAPPEK), Projects Report, LHTEE, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Greece, 2004 National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education: Note on Life Cycle Analysis, March 1995, 1-5 Niachou A., Papakonstantinou K., Santamouris M ., Tsangrassoulis A. and Mihalakakou G., (2001), 'Analysis of the green roof thermal properties and investigation of its energy performance. J. Energy and Buildings, 2001, 33, 719-729 Olsthoorn, Xander: Environmental Indicators for business a review of the literature and standardisation methods, Journal of Cleaner Production, October 2001, 453-463 Papadopoulos A.M, Boura A., Moussiopoulos N., (1998), Environmental Management Systems: Applying LCA in Energy Conservation systems, Proceedings of the 12th National Conference of the Hellenic Operational Research Society, Samos, Greece, 46th September, p.73-83 (in Greek) Papadopoulos A.M. and Papadopoulos M.A., (2001), Insulation Materials for Buildings design, First 1st National Conference for the Building and the Environment, Athens Papadopoulos A.M., Karamanos A., Avgelis A., (2002), Environmental impact of insulating materials at the end of their useful lifetime, Proc. Int. Conf. Protection and restoration of the environment VI, Skiathos, Greece, 1-5 July, p. 1625-1632. Papadopoulos, A.M. (2005), State of the art in thermal insulation materials and aims for future developments, Energy and Bulidings, Volume 37, Issue 1, 77-86
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in

fibrous

insulating

materials, Proceedings

of

WSEAS/IASME

International Conference on HEAT and MASS TRANSFER, Corfu, Greece, August 17-

Putman, David: ISO 14031 Environmental Performance Evaluation, Draft Submitted to Confederation of Indian Industry for publication, September 2002 Santouris M. (ed), Energy and Climate in the Urban Built Environment, James and James Science Publishers, London, UK, 2000, p. 32-43 Wrisberg N., Udo de Haes H., Triebswetter U., Eder P., Clift R., (1999), Analytical tools for environmental design and management in a systems perspective, draft, European Network on Chain Analysis for Environmental Decision Support

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BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTS: Life Cycle Thinking Design for the Environment Cleaner Technology Dematerialization Eco-efficiency Industrial Ecology End of Life Management Others DECISION PROCESS

ANALYTICAL TOOLS Based on physical metrics Life Cycle Assessment Material Flow Accounting / Sustainable Flow Analysis (MFA/SFA) Material Intensity per service unit (MIPS) Cumulative Energy Requirements Analysis (CERA) Environmental Input / Output Analysis (IOA) Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) Checklists for Eco design, eco-audit Others

ANALYTICAL TOOLS Based on physical metrics Market Analysis Regulatory Assessment Stakeholder Analysis Issue Analysis Life Cycle Costing Cost Benefit Analysis Input / Output Analysis Partial Equilibrium Models Optimization Models Technology Assessment Multi Criteria Analysis Others

PROCEDURAL TOOLS Environmental Management System Environmental Audit Environmental Performance Evaluation Environmental Labelling Eco-design Environmental Impact Assessment Quality Management Systems Total Quality Environmental Management Others

TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR TOOLS IMPLEMENTATION Models implementation (allocation models, mass balance models, dispersion models, normalization models, evaluation models) Uncertainty Analysis Sensitivity Analysis Specialised Analysis

Figure 1. Environmental tools, concepts and technical support for estimating environmental performance [based on Wrisberg N., Udo de Haes H., Triebswetter U., Eder P., Clift R., (1999), Analytical tools for environmental design and management in a systems perspective, draft, European Network on Chain Analysis for Environmental Decision Support]

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Environm ental Perform ance Evaluation (EPE) M ethods for EPE

Environmental Indicator Systems (EPI) Environmental M anagement Accounting (EM A) Environmental M anagement Systems (EM S) Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Eco - labelling

Supportive ISO Standards

ISO 14000 (EM S), includes general guidelines for principles, systems and tools for environmental management ISO 14001 (EM S), provides specific guidelines for environmental management systems implementation ISO 14010, includes general principles and guidelines for environmental auditing ISO 14020, refers to eco-labelling ISO 14031, refers to environmental performance evaluation and indirectly to environmental accounting ISO 14040, refers to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Figure 2.

Most common methodologies followed for implementing EPE

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EPE with Indicators Setting Environmental Performance Indicators Environmental Condition Indicators
Management Performance Indicators

Operative Performance Indicators

Impact to air

Material / Energy INPUT Energy Water Materials OUTPUT

Infrastructure / Traffic Infrastructure Traffic

Impact to soil

Greenhouse effect Acidification Eutrofication Smog Solid waste

Impact to water

Liquid waste Water eutrofication

System Assessment

Domain assessment

System conversion Air emissions Liquid waste Solid waste Products Law / complaints Environmental

Training staff Security / health External communication

Figure 3. Indicators for Environmental Performance Evaluation

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STONE WOOL
Melting of the initial mixture (85% amphibolite, 6% limestone and 9% calcium oxides) in electric ovens

EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE
Supply of the production line that consists of two extruders. Polystyrene and additive substances mixture (used for process and final characteristics optimisation) is forwarded to the first extruder

Production of primary resin

Mixing & increase of the mixtures viscosity Infusion of the mixture at the first extruder, under high pressure conditions and temperature (200 o C)

Resins production Mixtures dissemination Complete additives diffusion in the polymers mass of and controlled progressive refrigeration of the mixture at the second extruder

Resin addition to the initial raw materials mixture

Silicone, water and oil addition to the new mixture

Change of the materials flow from cylindrical to flat form in the head drawing

Strengthening of the new mixture into a polymerisation oven

Mixtures exit in atmospheric pressure. The mixture is converted in foam form and is expanded taking the appropriate thickness at the forming plates

Products cutting

The product is pulled on the configuration line in order to be cut and freezed at the environment temperature

Products packing

The final product is cut and shaped at the appropriate dimensions and configured properly

Products temporary storage

Products packing Products temporary storage

Products transport

Products transport

Figure 4. Systems boundaries Comparison to insulation materials production processes

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Environmental impacts caused by insulation materials' production based on european and greek coefficients

1,00 0,80 0,60 0,40 0,20 0,00

1,18 0,39

1,152 0,4

1,83 0,78

1,79 0,8

XPS STONE WOOL

kg eq. CO2 / kgkg eq. CO2 / kgkg eq. CO2 /m2kg eq. CO2 / kg material material (Greek insulated material (Greek coefficients) surface coefficients) (GEMIS) (GEMIS)

Figure 5. Environmental impacts caused by insulation materials based on european and greek databases calculated after life cycle analysis implementation

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Type of Indicator

Indicators characteristics Stone wool Energy (kWh/Kg) consumed per kg of insulations material production Raw material (tn) used for the initial mixture per tn of insulation material production Raw material (tn) used for resin production per 1000 tn stone wools production bauxite formaldehyde phenol urea silane ammonium sulfate ammonia caustic soda sulfuric acid silicone
tumefactive additives

XPS

Indicators value Stone XPS wool 0,3 0,033 0,03 0,01 0,004 0,036 0,01 0,016 3,64 0,0004 0,001 0,002 0,0007 0,001 0,06 0,62 0,86

electric energy Heating (lt / kg stone wool) amphibolite limestone polystyrene

Operating Performance Indicator (OPI) Auxiliary material (tn) used to the production process per tn insulation materials production Cover material (tn) used to the production process per tn stone wools production Packing material (tn) used to the products packing process per tn insulation materials production

mineral oil aluminum tinfoil paper glass fabric

additives

0,002 0,4 0,4 0,003 0,002

0,015

LD Polyethylene

0,0125

0,018

Table 1. Operating Performance Indicators for insulation materials production

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Type of Indicator

Indicators characteristics greenhouse effect (kg eq. CO2)/kg insulation material acidification (kg Environmental impact to air (air pollution) eq. SO4)/kg insulation material eutrophication (kg eq. PO4)/kg insulation material smog (kg eq. SPM)/kg insulation material Environmental impact to soil (solid wastes) solid wastes (kg)/ kg insulation material liquid wastes (kg)/ Environmental impact to water (liquid wastes and water pollution) kg insulation material water eutrophication (kg eq. PO4)/kg insulation material

Indicators value Stone wool 0,39 ~ 0,4 XPS 1,18

0,03

0,002

0,0007

~0

Environmental Condition Indicators (ECI)

0,0147

~0

0,09

0,08

0,1119309

0,001

0,0000044

~0

Table 2. Environmental Condition Indicators for insulation materials production

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