Ecological Footprint Assessment and Reduction of an Academic Building in Shahdol (India)
Dilawar Husain 1 * , Ravi Prakash 1
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1 Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Teliarganj, 221004 Allahabad, INDIA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Buildings are responsible for significant natural resource consumption, waste generation, and environmental pollution. Building impacts are generally assessed through life cycle analysis (LCA). This study integrates LCA with the Ecological Footprint indicator for the assessment of a building's impact on the planet. In order to determine ecological impact of a building, a methodology has been established for estimation of Life Cycle Ecological Footprint (LCEFtotal) of the building, as well as to assess its impact due to resource consumption (energy, water, building materials, manpower etc.) and waste assimilation over the lifecycle. For an academic building located in India taken as a case study, the LCEFtotal is found to be 4397.03 gha and the LCEFtotal per unit floor area is 0.60 gha/m2. The average annual Ecological Footprint (EFavg) of the academic building is 73.28 gha/yr that is approximately 20 times more than the actual physical land of the campus. The average annual Ecological Footprint per student (EFavg/student) of the academic building is 0.045 gha/yr/student. If annual grid electricity consumption of the building is replaced by the grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic (GRSPV) system in the ratios of 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%, it can reduce up to 61%, 54%, 31%, and 15% of the total LCEFtotal of the academic building, respectively.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EUR J SUSTAIN DEV RES, Volume 2, Issue 4, 2018, Article No: 42

https://doi.org/10.20897/ejosdr/3910

Publication date: 04 Oct 2018

Article Views: 3258

Article Downloads: 2440

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