A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid
The building industry has a significant impact on the environment due to massive natural resources and energy it uses throughout its life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) method has been accepted internationally and has been used to quantify the environmental impact of processes and products in...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2017
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| Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/ http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/1/All.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/5/faiz.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848773537658044416 |
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| author | Ahmad Faiz , Abd Rashid |
| author_facet | Ahmad Faiz , Abd Rashid |
| author_sort | Ahmad Faiz , Abd Rashid |
| building | UM Research Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The building industry has a significant impact on the environment due to massive natural
resources and energy it uses throughout its life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA)
method has been accepted internationally and has been used to quantify the
environmental impact of processes and products including in the building industry. The
objectives of this thesis are to evaluate and benchmark conventional residential buildings
and an energy efficient building in Malaysia by using LCA. This thesis has also
quantified a potential environmental impact reduction by adopting selected green
building standard and finally estimate the carbon emission reduction. Three residential
buildings in Malaysia with different specifications were selected as case studies namely a
semi-detached government quarters (GQ), a semi-detached house by a private developer
(PD), and an energy efficient house (EEH). The environmental impacts of the buildings
were assessed by using SimaPro under the cradle-to-grave system boundaries over a fifty
years period by using CML 2001 and Eco-indicator 99. The findings of this thesis state
that the energy consumption and the building materials selection have the major
influence on the environmental impact. The adoption of energy efficient building
products, the installation of solar panel, and a reduction in the air-conditioning usage can
lower the energy consumption of the building significantly and subsequently reduce the
overall environmental impact. Based on the potential improvement, it is estimated that
the selected residential building in Malaysia has the potential to reduce 6.28 Mt of CO2
or 3.36% reduction in carbon emission intensity per GDP, in line with the pledge by the
Prime Minister of Malaysia for 40% reduction by the year 2020. Therefore, the LCA
approach to the residential building in Malaysia is crucial due to the ability to assess the environmental impact based on the selection of materials and specification of the
building for further improvement even before the building is being constructed. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T13:43:59Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | um-7978 |
| institution | University Malaya |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T13:43:59Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | um-79782020-01-18T02:13:43Z A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid Ahmad Faiz , Abd Rashid TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) The building industry has a significant impact on the environment due to massive natural resources and energy it uses throughout its life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) method has been accepted internationally and has been used to quantify the environmental impact of processes and products including in the building industry. The objectives of this thesis are to evaluate and benchmark conventional residential buildings and an energy efficient building in Malaysia by using LCA. This thesis has also quantified a potential environmental impact reduction by adopting selected green building standard and finally estimate the carbon emission reduction. Three residential buildings in Malaysia with different specifications were selected as case studies namely a semi-detached government quarters (GQ), a semi-detached house by a private developer (PD), and an energy efficient house (EEH). The environmental impacts of the buildings were assessed by using SimaPro under the cradle-to-grave system boundaries over a fifty years period by using CML 2001 and Eco-indicator 99. The findings of this thesis state that the energy consumption and the building materials selection have the major influence on the environmental impact. The adoption of energy efficient building products, the installation of solar panel, and a reduction in the air-conditioning usage can lower the energy consumption of the building significantly and subsequently reduce the overall environmental impact. Based on the potential improvement, it is estimated that the selected residential building in Malaysia has the potential to reduce 6.28 Mt of CO2 or 3.36% reduction in carbon emission intensity per GDP, in line with the pledge by the Prime Minister of Malaysia for 40% reduction by the year 2020. Therefore, the LCA approach to the residential building in Malaysia is crucial due to the ability to assess the environmental impact based on the selection of materials and specification of the building for further improvement even before the building is being constructed. 2017-09 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/1/All.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/5/faiz.pdf Ahmad Faiz , Abd Rashid (2017) A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid. PhD thesis, University of Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/ |
| spellingShingle | TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) Ahmad Faiz , Abd Rashid A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid |
| title | A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid |
| title_full | A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid |
| title_fullStr | A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid |
| title_full_unstemmed | A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid |
| title_short | A life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in Malaysia / Ahmad Faiz Abd Rashid |
| title_sort | life cycle assessment approach for sustainable residential buildings in malaysia / ahmad faiz abd rashid |
| topic | TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) |
| url | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/ http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/1/All.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7978/5/faiz.pdf |