Environmental assessment of rebuilding and possible performance improvements effect on a national scale

This paper deals with improvement on environmental significant activities related to the life supporting function "building and housing", using life cycle assessment. In the calculation, back-casting technique is utilised and implies to a future scenario, based on known technology. Besides heating, wastewater treatment is a significant issue, according to the definition of building and housing function practised. The main conclusions from the assessment are that rebuilding is an environmentally better choice than the construction of a new building, if the same essential environmentally related functional performance is achieved. Furthermore, the case study and the national estimates performed prove that the potential environmental impact can be reduced by about 70% for the heating service and 75% for the wastewater system, if the suggested measures are performed. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.