Course syllabus

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BOM251 - Life cycle engineering lp3 VT25 (7.5 hp)

The course is offered by the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE)

Welcome!

Dear students! Welcome to the Life Cycle Engineering course. 

Contact details

Examiner

Holger Wallbaum, Professor in Sustainable building, ACE, holger.wallbaum@chalmers.se, M. 0733-83 92 59

Lecturer/Supervisors

Course purpose

This master course aims to provide in-depth knowledge of the concepts of Life Cycle Engineering and sustainable design in the built environment. The focus is primarily on buildings in the Swedish climate zone, regulative frameworks and social-economic circumstances. The overall purpose of the course is to acquaint students with state-of-the-art knowledge for their future professional roles as civil and environmental engineers, planners, consultants, contractors, and similar.

The main goal of this course is to deepen and broaden already existing skills in applying simultaneously theories, methodologies and tools related to Life Cycle Engineering and sustainable building design and operation.

Schedule

TimeEditLinks to an external site.

Course literature

Textbooks

  • Henrikke Bauman, Anne-Marie Tillman. The hitchhiker's guide to LCA
  • Walter Klöpffer, Birgit Grahl. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A Guide to Best Practice
  • Scott Matthews, Chris Hendrickson, Deanna Matthews. Life cycle assessment: quantitative approaches for decision that matter.
    http://www.lcatextbook.com/Links to an external site.

Supplementary Literature

  • Gregor Wernet, Christian Bauer, Bernhard Steubing, Jürgen Reinhard, Emilia Moreno-Ruiz, Bo Weidema. The ecoinvent database version 3 (part I): overview and methodology.
  • International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook
  • EeBGuide Operational Guidance for Life Cycle Assessment Studies of the Energy Efficient Buildings Initiative 
    (https://www.eebguide.eu/Links to an external site).

Relevant Standards and Regulations

  • ISO 14040:2006: Environmental management -- Life cycle assessment -- Principles and framework
  • ISO 14044:2006: Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Requirements and guidelines
  • SS-EN 15643:2010-2012: Sustainability of construction works – Sustainability assessment of buildings
  • SS-EN 15978:2011: Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of environmental performance of buildings - Calculation method
  • SS-EN 16309:2014 + A1:2014: Sustainability of construction works – Assessment of social performance of buildings – Calculation methods
  • SS-EN 16627:2015: Sustainability of construction works – Assessment of economic performance of buildings – Calculation methods
  • SS-EN 15941:2012: Sustainability of construction works – Environmental product declarations – Methodology and data for generic data
  • SS-EN 15942:2011: Sustainability of construction works – Environmental product declarations – Communication format business-to-business
  • SS-EN ISO 14025:2010: Environmental standards and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures
  • ISO/TS 14067: Greenhouse gases - Carbon footprint of products - Requirements and guidelines for quantification and communication
  • SS-EN 15804:2012+A1:2013: Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products

Course design

The course is based on a practical case study of a building or an infrastructure project, e.g. a bridge in a specific temporal and geographical setup. You will work on these case studies throughout the course on which the principles of Life Cycle Engineering and Sustainable Design will be applied. The necessary background knowledge is provided through recorded as well as online lectures. In addition, students are expected to read state-of-the-art literature. Furthermore, two assignments need to be passed that are closely related to your case studies.

The course explores the key aspects of Life Cycle Engineering in the Built Environment with a focus on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Sustainability Assessment of buildings and infrastructures. Furthermore, the course will in brief introduce the concepts of Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA).

The course is organized around the following themes:

  • Introduction to the principles of Life Cycle Engineering and sustainable building design.
  • Understanding of environmental impact categories and indicators.
  • Importance of the environmental impacts in different life cycle stages and on components of a case study.
  • Identification of significant issues and recommendations from a sustainability perspective for a case study.

At the end of the course, the results of the case study are summarized in a written group report as well as presented in an oral presentation by the different groups to the class and the supervisors.

Students work in teams that will be randomly composed and most of the time self-reliantly. Key topics are introduced and developed through lectures, online content and self-study input. Additional input on the “real-world application” and the importance of LCA in the built environment will be provided through lectures by external experts from the business. Furthermore, each student group will receive in-depth feedback on their project work in supervision meetings with the teachers. The work per group is presented orally to the teachers and classmates as well as handed in in a written report at the end of the course.

Access will be provided to the LCA software OpenLCA and the ecoinvent database.

Changes made since the last occasion

The final written exam has been changed to multiple choice.

The credits for the report and the exam have been adapted.

Learning objectives and syllabus

After completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Demonstrate understanding of the challenges of a sustainable life cycle engineering design
  • Develop strategies to overcome these challenges in each of the life cycle stages
  • Independently conduct an environmental LCA of a building or infrastructure project
  • Apply the most relevant environmental impact indicators
  • Interpret and present the results of an environmental LCA in a concise way
  • Complement the environmental LCA with other life cycle engineering methods such as Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) and qualitative sustainability information.

You will find the syllabus on Studieportalen (.). 

Examination form

The examination is composed of three parts assessing both the group and the individual performance separately.

Group performance:

  1. The final oral presentation in the last week of the course
  2. The written report handed in at the end of the course

Individual Performance:

  1. A written exam

The final grade for the course will be made up of the points received for the written group report (max. 100 points) and the oral presentation of the group report (pass/fail).

The final exam will be a written individual Multiple choice exam (max. 100 points).

The report and the exam will be added up for your final grade (max. 100 points, where 80-100 points will be a 5, 65-79 points will be a 4, 50-64 points will be a 3, and 0-49 will be failed). The points of the group report will make 2/3 and the points of the final written exam will make 1/3 of your final grade.

However, note that you need to pass all three examination parts on their own as well to receive a passing final grade for the course. The following grades will be used: failed, 3, 4, 5.

Course summary:

Date Details Due