Life cycle assessment of windows for the North American residential market: Case study

摘要

A life cycle assessment (LCA) of residential windows was conducted to evaluate the environmental impacts of those made with aluminum-clad wood, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and fiberglass frames for sale in North America. The LCA was a case study in which specific-site data were used for the manufacturing stage of each window, while published data were adapted to complete the life cycle inventories using Sima Pro software. These inventories were grouped into impact categories and scaled based on IMPACT 2002+ version 2.1 characterization and damage factors. The damage modeling indicated that the life cycle impacts are dominated by the combustion of non-renewable energy resources. The PVC life cycle used the most non-renewable energy and caused the most damage owing to that window's shorter service life. The disposal of aluminum cladding in the municipal waste stream caused greater aquatic ecotoxicity for the wood window. The sensitivity analysis revealed that replacing the virgin material in aluminum cladding with recycled content improved the life cycle impacts of the wood window. Using fiberglass or PVC to clad the wood window also improved the environmental performance. Other potential improvements to the life cycle impacts of the three windows include improving energy efficiency, particularly during the secondary manufacturing.