Assessing environmental impacts of individual households: A large-scale bottom-up LCA-model for Switzerland
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Date
2018-05Type
- Conference Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Besides governmental consumption, household consumption is the main driver of economy, and is thus ultimately responsible for the environmental impacts that occur over the whole life cycle of products and services that households consume. Therefore, assessing environmental footprints of households is an important basis to identify environmental policies. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive regionalized bottom-up model for Switzerland that is able to assess the environmental impacts induced by individual households. The purpose of this model is to provide a virtual platform for detailed scenario analysis which shall support effective political decision making on different scales.
Three existing bottom-up models were merged: a building stock energy model, an agent-based transport simulation and a household consumption model. All of them were tested and evaluated beforehand. The physically-based building energy model establishes simplified energy balances for each residential building based on spatially and temporally resolved climate data, building characteristics and 3D-geometries. It provides estimates of space heating, hot water and electricity demand for each Swiss household. The mobility sub-model builds upon the results of an agent-based traffic simulation framework which was applied to Switzerland and reproduces mobility patterns of Swiss inhabitants in space and time. The third sub-model pursues a data-driven approach and enables the quantification of consumption of food, consumables, and other goods and services for each Swiss household by means of data mining techniques. Linking these sub-models with environmental background data allowed for computing an environmental profile for each household in Switzerland.
The application of this model to the current situation of Switzerland reveals interesting differences between individual households, different regions and different consumption areas. By covering the variability of household behavior and quantifying the demands and environmental footprints of households within a certain area, the model delivers important insights for local policymakers to derive targeted environmental strategies tailored to the specific problems and household types in a region. Furthermore, the high resolution of all three sub-models permits testing of policies and in-depth analyses of scenarios, ranging from detailed building refurbishment programs to future mobility solutions such as autonomous vehicle systems. Show more
Publication status
publishedBook title
Abstract BookVolume
(147)Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Europe (SETAC)Event
Organisational unit
03732 - Hellweg, Stefanie / Hellweg, Stefanie
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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