Building envelopes: A comparison of impacts on environment

The key objective of the present study is to compare two types of building envelopes, glass curtain walls and insulated brick walls with windows, as applied on a hypothetical building case, with respect to their life-cycle energy and environmental impacts. An integrated energy and environmental Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to achieve the research objective. LCA analysis is accomplished in four stages: goal and scope definition, inventory modeling, impact assessment, and interpretation of results. The impacts were assessed in three categories of fossil fuel consumption, global warming, and ozone depletion. We conclude that a brick wall system with window primarily consisting of brick veneer, air gap, polystyrene insulation, concrete block and gypsum plasterboard will result in lower environmental impacts in all categories.