Open Collections

Sustainable housing : reducing the "Ecological footprint" of new wood frame single-family detached houses

University of British Columbia

Sustainability will require that human activity become significantly less material and energy intensive than at the present time. Single family detached housing is one area that has to meet the challenge of sustainability. This thesis investigates the extent of the potential improvement in the environmental performance of wood frame single family detached houses. The Ecological Footprint or Appropriated Carrying Capacity method (EF/ACC) is used to evaluate the environmental performance of the houses examined throughout the study. The thesis came to the following key conclusions: • Land areas required to absorb CO2 emissions are the largest constituent of the Ecological Footprint of single family detached houses followed by land area required to produce energy. These results show clearly that energy, as a major contributor to CO2 emission today and as a resource in the post-fossil fuel era, is the most important environmental concern that has to be addressed. • Operating energy represents the largest component of energy consumption in a house. It constitutes 76% and 73% of the total life cycle energy in the base case study house and the improved house respectively. • The reductions obtained in the improved house compared to the base case study house were: Directly occupied land 48.0% Building materials use 49.2% Life cycle energy consumption 34.0% Life cycle CO2 emission 33.0% The reduction in the ecological footprint of the house is obtained by reducing its size, improving its design and adopting only energy efficient strategies which are cost effective. A 35.6% reduction in the Ecological Footprint of the base study house is obtained. The Ecological Footprint of the improved house is 58.68 in comparison to 91.06 ha in the base case study house. A greater reduction could have been achieved without the limits imposed by EF/ACC method use and the commitment to the principles of cost effectiveness and minimum change in life style.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-01-31

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4057

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace