Apoyo técnico en el desarrollo del análisis de ciclo de vida (ACV) para el proceso de elaboración de una cubierta arquitectónica galvanizada y una cubierta arquitectónica galvanizada pre-pintada para la Empresa Casostenible S.A.S.

Abstract

The country is currently directing its efforts on climate change issues towards reducing greenhouse emissions, identifying challenging targets and establishing strategies for their implementation through sectoral road maps and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. The construction sector is one of the most highly impactful in the face of climate change, specifically buildings account for about 7% of emissions nationally, so it is essential to act on the basis of real and verifiable results. Thus, companies in the sector are implementing the realization of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for their products, so that among products with equivalent functional characteristics it is possible to choose the one that generates the least environmental impact and encourages the companies that produce them to improve their processes to improve their environmental performance in front of their customers. The purpose of this document is to present the Life Cycle Assessment carried out on a galvanized architectural covering and a pre-painted galvanized architectural covering, visualizing the differences in environmental performance in the different impact categories defined by the methodology of the Spanish Standard UNE-EN 15804:2012 + A2 for construction products with special emphasis on Global Warming Potential (GWP), where it was found that the process of painting the architectural covering generates an increase of 320 kgCO2eq per ton of product. When comparing this product with products of similar functionalities such as clay roofs and polyurethane-steel it was found that the value of GWP is notoriously higher due to the processes of extraction of steel, transportation to the country and its processing in plant, which would indicate that in terms of sustainability of the buildings could be replaced by other products with lower environmental impacts especially in modules A1-A3, however it is noteworthy that analyzing Modules C and D end of life, the potential for reuse and recycling of the products in this analysis is greater than products of similar characteristics, so that in their end of life they can return to the production process, avoiding the extraction of virgin raw materials of primary origin in mines.