Climate impact of renovation projects in the built environment– zooming in on technical installations
This master's thesis aims to contribute new insights by quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the renovation of technical installations in buildings. Students selecting this project will actively define tasks to achieve their research goals within the established timeline. While supervisors assist in designing project milestones, students bear responsibility for data collection and analysis.
Background
This MSc project is part of a broader project to develop knowledge about the climate impact of Swedish buildings funded by the Swedish Energy Agency . The MSc project aims to assess and address the environmental impact of building construction and renovation projects in Sweden, focusing on embodied Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Buildings contribute 39% of global carbon emissions, making decarbonising this sector crucial for climate change mitigation efforts. Moreover, the built environment significantly affects the economy, local jobs, and quality of life while utilising around 50% of extracted materials. In the life cycle of energy-efficient buildings, about 50% of carbon is embodied. On a global scale, buildings' embodied emissions contribute approximately 10% to energy-related GHG emissions alone.
While regulatory measures address new building projects, attention is shifting towards mitigating the climate impact of renovation projects in the built environment sector. Despite increasingly detailed methodologies for GHG emissions calculations for technical installations, the focus of analysis and intervention often remains on new construction. The evolving discourse suggests a growing awareness of the need to comprehensively understand the climate impact of technical installations in both new and existing buildings. Yet, understanding GHG emissions from technical installations still poses a challenge due to complexities in translating product data among other challenges. Nevertheless, recent developments in Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for technical installations indicate a growing interest in understanding their climate impact.
Task description
- Processing data from building service components and systems, utilising already collected case study data and mapping it to existing environmental data.
- Conducting whole-life carbon (emissions from all lifecycle phases, encompassing both embodied and operational carbon together) analysis using a fit-for-purpose life-cycle assessment-based methodology.
- Analyzing and reporting results, including comparative assessments.
Methodology
The student must determine the specific research design and methodology, adhering to a structured problem-solving approach. This approach involves identifying key challenges, distilling them into focused and achievable goals, formulating a systems-level architecture, and responsibly applying available resources to develop a methodological solution. Data collection and analysis can encompass qualitative and quantitative approaches, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), surveys, and analyses of resource use and carbon footprinting methodologies and standards.
Learning outcomes
After completing the thesis work, the student will be able to:
- Conduct a GHG emissions accounting of built environment components and systems
- Demonstrate ability to apply systems-level thinking to apply a carbon accounting method and communicate results coherently in a scientific manner
Prerequisites
• Basic understanding of sustainable building design and built environment
• Basic familiarity with building service components and systems
• Knowledge of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or carbon footprint methodologies is an advantage
Criteria for evaluation
Critical criteria in the complete work and method development and metric for the final assessment are:
- Fulfillment of the ILOs for Master Thesis at KTH's ITM School;
- The student's initiative and independence in developing the overall research design;
- A critical and system perspective and critical discussion of the assumptions and results;
- Consideration of the literature.
- The ability to communicate the results of scientific work clearly and coherently.
Track Specialization
Transformation of Energy System (TES)
Division/Department
Division of Energy Systems – Department of Energy Technology
Research areas
Duration
The thesis is to start at the beginning of period 3, at the end of January or early February 2024.
How to apply
Send an email expressing your interest in the topic and your CV to the supervisors.
Supervision
