Life Cycle Energy Analysis of Vertical Greenery System (VGS) in Tropical Climate

Ziyou Huang (), Yujie Lu and Nyuk Hien Wong
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Ziyou Huang: National University of Singapore
Yujie Lu: Tongji University
Nyuk Hien Wong: National University of Singapore

A chapter in Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate, 2021, pp 1785-1799 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Vertical greenery systems (VGS) has gained its popularity in the modern cities as it is proven to have various benefits, among which thermal benefits to achieve energy saving on buildings are significant. Current studies have been primarily focused on evaluating the impact of VGS on building energy use through reducing conduction heat gain, however, the energy consumed in producing, transporting, installing and maintaining the VGS has not been fully investigated. As most VGS supporting components are made of energy intensive materials, such as steel pipe and frame, it is essential to quantify the total energy consumed by VGS during its entire life-cycle stage for a better evaluation and propagation of VGS. The aim of this study is to explore the environmental impacts and the sustainability of VGS from the lifecycle energy (LCE) perspective. Specifically, the objectives are as follows: first to determine the overall LCE of three types of systems; and to identify the components with the highest impacts on LCE; finally, to recommend strategies to help the industry better manage the LCE of VGS. In this study, the life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) has been used to effectively capture the LCE generated from initialization, installation, maintenance, demolition of VGS. The energy data in each stage were collected from three types of VGS projects in Singapore that include carrier, planter and support system. From the results, carrier system is found to consume the highest LCE, followed by planter system and support system. When comparing the LCE with the energy that saved from lower building cooling load, it requires roughly 6.5–11.8 years to reach a balance of zero energy for different systems. The study is the first to present LCE of VGS in tropical climate and the results can be used as a reference for the future selection of VGS as well.

Keywords: Life cycle energy; Vertical greenery system; Green wall; Embodied energy; Green building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-15-8892-1_125

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-8892-1_125

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