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Among various industries, the construction sector has one of the greatest impacts on the environment. Minimizing the resource use and the waste outputs in this sector could be fulfilled by applying circular economy (CE) strategies. Although research on CE in the construction sector has increased in recent years, there have not been remarkable adjustments by applying these strategies to the construction industry. The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of using CE strategies in the construction sector. A framework was adapted to guide the application of different CE strategies at the end-of-life of buildings. The framework was assessed by a case study of a residential building in mass timber. This study evaluated the application of CE strategies from the environmental aspect with the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The results confirmed that circular strategies can deliver lower environmental impacts.

Introduction: Cocoa is one of the main crops grown in Ecuador. The agricultural area dedicated to cocoa represents the largest area dedicated to a permanent crop the country. Dry bean production has grown at an average annual rate of 15% since 2014, mainly due to yield improvements and replacement of other crops. Several varieties of cocoa are grown, but production is dominated by two main varieties: “Cacao Fino y de Aroma” and clonal varieties (dominated by CCN-51). Cocoa, mainly in monocrop systems, is mainly produced on the Ecuadorian Coast (but also in the Highlands and Amazonia). This study presents a statistics-based LCA of the Ecuadorian cocoa value chain. Material and methods: LCIs representing the various types of systems in each link of the value chain—i.e. the various types of farming systems, processing and distribution—were constructed in terms of representative production units. Sub-chains centred on different cocoa varieties and value-adding strategies were identified. Primary and secondary data were collected for the most representative system types, as defined in the actor typologies. Primary data were obtained via field visits and surveys, while secondary data were obtained mainly from statistical datasets of the National Institute of Statistics and Census. Impacts were computed following the European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint, while soil carbon turnover was modelled using RothC. Results and discussion: Identified types of producers are subsistence and entrepreneurial small, medium, and large. Two post-harvest strategies were modelled: a volume-oriented one and a quality-oriented one. The main sub-chains identified are the volume/commodity-oriented one (which is dominantly based on cocoa which either does not undergo post-harvest, or which undergoes volume-oriented post-harvest activities) and the quality-oriented one. Across producer types, irrigation and negative direct field emissions are the most important factors, followed i

The building sector is increasingly identified as being energy and carbon intensive. Although the majority of emissions are linked to energy usage during the operation part of a building’s life cycle, choice of construction materials could play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental end-point damages. Increasing the use of wood products in buildings may contribute to the solution, but their environmental impacts are difficult to assess and quantify because they depend on a variety of uncertain parameters. The present cradle-to-gate life-cycle analysis (LCA) focuses exclusively on a glued-laminated wood product (glulam) produced from North American boreal forests located in the province of Quebec, Canada. This study uses primary data to quantify the environmental impacts of all necessary stages of products’ life cycle, from harvesting the primary resources, to manufacturing the transformed product into glulam. The functional unit is 1 m3 of glulam. This is the first study based on primary data pertaining to Quebec’s boreal forest. Quebec’s boreal glulam manufacturing was compared with two other LCAs on glulam in Europe and the United States. Our results show that Quebec’s glulam has a significantly smaller environmental footprint than what is reported in the literature. From an LCA perspective, there is a significant advantage to producing glulam in Quebec, compared with the European and American contexts. The same holds true in regard to the four end-point damage categories.

In the context of a low environmental impact energy mix, the embodied energy of building materials can account for up to 46% of a building's life cycle energy over a 50-year service life. Fifty percent of this energy corresponds to the combination of the structure and building envelope. While most studies have compared different residential building systems or wall assemblies, this study aims to quantify the contribution of initial embodied impacts to the environmental impacts of wall assemblies' life cycle for the exterior walls of an office building in Quebec City (Canada). Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessments were conducted on eight wall assemblies, three of which use light-frame construction, one lightweight steel framing, two cross-laminated timber and two glued-laminated timber in a post and beam approach. The life cycle impacts were evaluated using openLCA, the ecoinvent database and the TRACI method. Energy consumption during the use stage was simulated using EnergyPlus. The results indicate that initial embodied impacts can account for 40% to 66% of all environmental impacts throughout the wall assemblies' life cycle. These results suggest that, in this specific context, the initial embodied impacts can become the dominant source of environmental impacts in wall assemblies' life cycle. Many factors have been identified as affecting initial embodied impacts such as the choice, the quantity and the nature of materials. The results of this study will help decision makers to identify where efforts should be made to reduce a building's environmental impacts in similar context.

Several studies have shown the benefits of using timber in the construction sector in terms of climate change, which has received the support of decision-makers. However, few studies focus on other environmental indicators. The environmental impacts (i.e., such as human health, ecosystem quality, and resources) of material substitutions, consequence of the increasing use of wood, are still lacking in the literature. Studies that compare different structural materials focus either on a single building or on one structural system that would be representative on a larger scale. However, the environmental benefits of some projects are not easily extrapolated to the scale of a given region with a variety of architectures. Higher-order effects, beyond the building scale, can indeed imply changes in the resource availability according to the unconstrained suppliers and resources. The objective of this paper is to assess the life cycle environmental consequences of wood substitutions at a regional scale for the non-residential construction sector. The increasing use of wood structures for non-residential buildings in the province of Quebec (Canada) is used as a case study. The method includes the development of material substitution factors by comparing several structures. The substitution factors show that, on average, wood can replace, simultaneously, 0.59 and 4.54 times the weight of steel and concrete, respectively. However, steel substitution has more advantages than concrete substitution. Among the tested parameters, the variability of the material substitution factors implies more uncertainties in the results. The originality of our study lies in the limitations that may change the conclusions drawn from the substitution at a large scale. With three substitution scenarios for four impact categories, the results showed an advantage of using wood in seven of the twelve combinations. The ecosystem quality indicator is the most unfavorable and shows opposite trends to cl

La recherche opérationnelle a traditionnellement pour objectif de minimiser les coûts ou de maximiser les profits. Cet article présente un modèle d’aide à la décision basé sur l’optimisation multicritère qui intègre l’analyse de cycle de vie conséquentielle. Les options considérées sont d’ordre stratégique, car il est question des flux de matière entre les différents produits, les investissements permettant l'intégration de nouvelles technologies et leurs interactions. Grâce à une approche a priori, toutes les solutions ont été explorées, en faisant varier les pondérations de chacun des critères. Il est ainsi possible de générer des fronts de Pareto qui représentent les c ompromis entre les critères. Ce qui permet à l’industriel de faire une sélection des solutions les plus pertinentes. Le modèle est développé à partir de données spécifiques à une entreprise forestière, couvrant les activités de récolte en forêt et de trans formation des produits du bois. Les résultats proposés sont donc propres au contexte de l’entreprise. Malgré cela, dans la partie discussion est présentée une courbe d’abattement des coûts marginaux. Il s’agit d’une représentation qui montre explicitement le coût de la réduction d’émissions de gaz à effet de serre par l’implantation d’une nouvelle technologie. Ce qui pourrait aider la gouvernance publique à fixer le prix de la tonne de carbone.

Ground cover management (GCM) is an important agricultural practice used to reduce weed growth, erosion and runoff, and improve soil fertility. In the present study, an approach to account for GCM is proposed in the modeling of pesticide emissions to evaluate the environmental sustainability of agricultural practices. As a starting point, we include a cover crop compartment in the mass balance of calculating initial (within minutes after application) and secondary (including additional processes) pesticide emission fractions. The following parameters were considered: (i) cover crop occupation between the rows of main field crops, (ii) cover crop canopy density, and (iii) cover crop family. Two modalities of cover crop occupation and cover crop canopy density were tested for two crop growth stages, using scenarios without cover crops as control. From that, emission fractions and related ecotoxicity impacts were estimated for pesticides applied to tomato production in Martinique (French West Indies) and to grapevine cultivation in the Loire Valley (France). Our results demonstrate that, on average, the presence of a cover crop reduced the pesticide emission fraction reaching field soil by a factor of 3 compared with bare soil, independently of field crop and its growth stage, and cover crop occupation and density. When considering cover exported from the field, ecotoxicity impacts were reduced by approximately 65% and 90%, compared with bare soil for grapevine and tomato, respectively, regardless of the emission distribution used. Because additional processes may influence emission distributions under GCM, such as runoff, leaching, or preferential flow, further research is required to incorporate these processes consistently in our proposed GCM approach. Considering GCM in pesticide emission modeling highlights the potential of soil cover to reduce pesticide emissions to field soil and related freshwater ecotoxicity. Furthermore, the consideration of GCM as common far

Il est indéniable que l'industrie du bâtiment doit évoluer vers des bâtiments plus durables à l'avenir. Les décideurs dans le secteur du bâtiment doivent prendre en compte les aspects sociaux et économiques dans leur prise de décision, en plus de l'aspect environnemental. Ces évaluations doivent également inclure la perspective du cycle de vie. L’approche conséquentielle est nécessaire pour évaluer les conséquences à long terme par rapport à l’approche attributionnelle qui se concentre sur l’évaluation d’un profil donné. Ce projet de recherche montre comment l'approche conséquentielle est intégrée dans l'analyse du cycle de vie (ACV), l’analyse du coût du cycle de vie (ACCV) et l'analyse sociale du cycle de vie (AsCV) dans le cadre de l'analyse de la durabilité du cycle de vie (ADCV). Ce mémoire de thèse contient huit chapitres pour atteindre les objectifs de recherche susmentionnés. Le chapitre 1 décrit le contexte de l'étude et l'organisation de la thèse. Le chapitre 2 présente les défis et les opportunités actuels de l'évaluation de la durabilité du cycle de vie qui a été publié et auquel il est fait référence comme premier article de cette thèse. Le premier article présentait les lacunes identifiées dans l'harmonisation des trois méthodes discutées (ACV, ACCV et AsCV). Dans l'intégration de l'ACV et du ACCV, la question de la temporalité est toujours absente dans l'ACV, en plus de la perspective conséquentielle dans l'ACV et l’ACCV. Dans l'intégration de ACCV et AsCV, deux lacunes de recherche sont également trouvées : la différence de perspective lors de l'utilisation à la fois de la méthode, en plus du manque de la perspective conséquentielle. Dans l'intégration de l’AsCV et de l'ACV, les problèmes qui se posent sont : la présence d'impact négatif et positif dans l’ AsCV, par rapport à l'ACV (dont les impacts sont presque toujours négatifs), sans oublier l'absence de l’approche conséquentielle dans l’AsCV. Lors de l'application de l’ADCV dans un contexte polit, It is undeniable that building industry needs to move to more sustainable buildings in the future. Building policy-makers need to include social and economic aspect into consideration, beside environmental one. These assessments also need to include a life cycle perspective. Consequential life cycle approach is suitable for assessing long-term consequences ,as compared to attributional approach that only focus on the impact accounting itself. This research project aims to demonstrate how the consequential approach when applied to life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) (under the life cycle sustainability assessment umbrella) can shed light on important insights that can’t be identified when using the attributional one. This thesis dissertation contains eight chapters to achieve the aforementioned research objectives. Chapter 1 describes the context of the study and dissertation organization. Chapter 2 presents the current challenges and opportunities of life cycle sustainability assessment that has been published and referred as first paper in this thesis. The first paper presented the identified gaps shown in the harmonization of the three presented methods (LCA, LCC, and SLCA). In the integration of LCA and LCC, temporality issue is still missing in LCA (issue, here it is called research gap [RG 1]), in addition to the missing consequential perspective in LCA and LCC (RG 2). In the integration of LCC and S-LCA, two research gaps are also found: the difference in stakeholder perspective when using both method (RG 3), in addition to the missing consequential perspective (RG 4). In the integration of S-LCA and LCA, the identified issues are (not extensive list): the presence of negative and positive impact in S-LCA, as compared to LCA (RG 5), the scales of assessment applied in each method differs (RG 6), in addition to the absence of a consequential approach in S-LCA. When applying LCSA in a policy co

La recherche opérationnelle a traditionnellement pour objectif de minimiser les coûts ou de maximiser les profits. Cet article présente un modèle d’aide à la décision basé sur l’optimisation multicritère qui intègre l’analyse de cycle de vie conséquentielle. Les options considérées sont d’ordre stratégique, car il est question des flux de matière entre les différents produits, les investissements permettant l'intégration de nouvelles technologies et leurs interactions. Grâce à une approche a priori, toutes les solutions ont été explorées, en faisant varier les pondérations de chacun des critères. Il est ainsi possible de générer des fronts de Pareto qui représentent les c ompromis entre les critères. Ce qui permet à l’industriel de faire une sélection des solutions les plus pertinentes. Le modèle est développé à partir de données spécifiques à une entreprise forestière, couvrant les activités de récolte en forêt et de trans formation des produits du bois. Les résultats proposés sont donc propres au contexte de l’entreprise. Malgré cela, dans la partie discussion est présentée une courbe d’abattement des coûts marginaux. Il s’agit d’une représentation qui montre explicitement le coût de la réduction d’émissions de gaz à effet de serre par l’implantation d’une nouvelle technologie. Ce qui pourrait aider la gouvernance publique à fixer le prix de la tonne de carbone.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the internationally recognized method to assess the environmental impacts of products and services. Its application to agri-food systems in developing or emerging contexts is recent and represents many challenges of scientific, partnerial and operational nature. With more than 10 years of scientific and field experience, the CIRAD LCA team has synthesized, with other internationally recognized experts, the best knowledge and approaches available to apply LCA under these conditions. This operational guide is a useful tool for LCA practitioners; it provides best practice recommendations to carry out LCA studies on agri-food products in developing and emerging contexts.

Ground cover management (GCM) is an important agricultural practice used to reduce weed growth, erosion and runoff, and improve soil fertility. In the present study, an approach to account for GCM is proposed in the modeling of pesticide emissions to evaluate the environmental sustainability of agricultural practices. As a starting point, we include a cover crop compartment in the mass balance of calculating initial (within minutes after application) and secondary (including additional processes) pesticide emission fractions. The following parameters were considered: (i) cover crop occupation between the rows of main field crops, (ii) cover crop canopy density, and (iii) cover crop family. Two modalities of cover crop occupation and cover crop canopy density were tested for two crop growth stages, using scenarios without cover crops as control. From that, emission fractions and related ecotoxicity impacts were estimated for pesticides applied to tomato production in Martinique (French West Indies) and to grapevine cultivation in the Loire Valley (France). Our results demonstrate that, on average, the presence of a cover crop reduced the pesticide emission fraction reaching field soil by a factor of 3 compared with bare soil, independently of field crop and its growth stage, and cover crop occupation and density. When considering cover exported from the field, ecotoxicity impacts were reduced by approximately 65% and 90%, compared with bare soil for grapevine and tomato, respectively, regardless of the emission distribution used. Because additional processes may influence emission distributions under GCM, such as runoff, leaching, or preferential flow, further research is required to incorporate these processes consistently in our proposed GCM approach. Considering GCM in pesticide emission modeling highlights the potential of soil cover to reduce pesticide emissions to field soil and related freshwater ecotoxicity. Furthermore, the consideration of GCM as common far

This work focuses on the assessment of the potential environmental benefits associated with the diversity of organic fertilisers available in the AGRIBALYSE database. Under the eco-design perspective, the shift from mineral to organic fertilisation regimes must not be over simplified, as fertilisation of each crop has an effect on the whole crop rotation. This work contrasts the environmental impacts of conventional crop rotations with equivalent eco-designed ones, featuring partial substitution of mineral by organic fertilisers at a level that the current yield is maintained. Two eco-design strategies involving AGRIBALYSE were devised. The first consists of retrofitting existing single crop processes by replacing conventional fertiliser inputs with newly available residual organic fertiliser processes. The second consists of eco-designing agricultural systems (i.e. technical itineraries representing crop rotations or crop sequences) by partially substituting mineral with newly available residues-based organic fertilisers. In both cases, it is necessary to adjust the fertiliser-related direct field emissions accordingly. In the second strategy, large amounts of organic fertilisers are input to replace mineral ones (tonnes vs. kg), and therefore overall impacts (i.e. impacts across impact categories) increase considerably, yet this effect is minimised when considering the alternative waste disposal pathways associated with the mineral fertilisation strategy (i.e. mineral fertilisation + disposal of the amount of organic residues necessary to deliver an equivalent level of fertilisation). The expanded functionality of a cropping system consuming organic waste-derived fertilisers (i.e. fertilisation + organic waste disposal) should be considered in comparative LCAs.

Today's urban transportation systems face increasing challenges such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, urban air quality, and traffic congestion. In this context, various initiatives of mutualized mobility have emerged. However, notably lacking is assessing the environmental impacts of mutualized transportation modes from a life cycle perspective. Using the actual urban transportation big data and related product life cycle data, this study combined with the life cycle assessment methodology and a “bottom-up” approach, explores the effect of mutualized mobility on greenhouse gas emissions of urban transportation systems for both Beijing and Toronto. The results showed that mutualized mobility might positively affect the sustainability of urban transport systems, albeit in very different ways. In Toronto, the annual per capita greenhouse gas emissions in 2016 decreased by 2.8 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) compared to 2011. Both carpooling and car-sharing displayed a higher curbing potential than ride-hailing. In a city characterized by higher population density like Beijing, ride-hailing created negative impacts. Deadheading (i.e., pulling an empty trailer) was the critical factor affecting ride-hailing's environmental performance, which accounted for about 30% of the total vehicle life cycle emissions. Counter-intuitively, greenhouse gas emissions of station-based bike-sharing (SBBS) were almost six times that of privately-owned bicycles and even higher than public transportation. This study's results can be used as a starting base for decision-makers to devise more appropriate strategies and programs to promote the sustainability of mutualized mobility and urban transportation systems. Meanwhile, it can also help the public at large to better understand the characteristics and environmental impacts of mutualized mobility to adopt more sustainable mutualized mobility alternatives.

A novel approach is proposed to evaluate the impact of forestry on ecosystem quality in life cycle assessment (LCA) combining a naturalness assessment model with a species richness relationship. The approach is applied to a case study evaluating different forest management strategies involving concomitantly silvicultural scenarios (plantation only, careful logging only or the current mix of both) combined with an increasing share of protected area for wood production in a Québec black spruce forest. The naturalness index is useful to compare forest management scenarios and can help evaluate conservation needs considering the type of management foreseen for wood production. The results indicate that it is preferable to intensify forest management over a small proportion of the forest territory while ensuring strict protection over the remaining portion, compared to extensive forest management over most of the forested area. To explore naturalness introduction in LCA, a provisory curve relating the naturalness index (NI) with the potential disappeared fraction of species (PDF) was developed using species richness data from the literature. LCA impact scores in PDF for producing 1 m3 of wood might lead to consistent results with the naturalness index but the uncertainty is high while the window leading to consistent results is narrow.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the internationally recognized method to assess the environmental impacts of products and services. Its application to agri-food systems in developing or emerging contexts is recent and represents many challenges of scientific, partnerial and operational nature. With more than 10 years of scientific and field experience, the CIRAD LCA team has synthesized, with other internationally recognized experts, the best knowledge and approaches available to apply LCA under these conditions. This operational guide is a useful tool for LCA practitioners; it provides best practice recommendations to carry out LCA studies on agri-food products in developing and emerging contexts.

The Gambian and Malian fisheries and fish processing value chains are predominantly artisanal and represent a key source of protein and livelihoods, yet their eco-efficiency has not been studied to date. A Life Cycle Assessment was used to estimate the associated environmental impacts of those value chains and provide information on the eco-efficiency indicators, which relate technical efficiencies to environmental impacts. The results showed that industrial Gambian fleets' fuel use efficiency is rather low as compared with the global mean fuel use intensity (landed fish/consumed fuel) for both small pelagics and demersal fish. In Mali, the fuel use intensity of motorised artisanal fisheries is lower than the mean values for artisanal inland fisheries in developing countries, but the important increase of frozen imported fish from fish farming multiplies the estimated impacts by four. The least energy-intensive fisheries (cast nets and stow nets in Gambia and opportunistic fishers in Mali) feature better eco-efficiency scores. Based on the identified sources of inefficiencies, we suggest improvements in the landing/processing infrastructure and fishing units' engines, coupled with technical and business training and improved processing methods, to ameliorate seafood eco-efficiency and a stronger recognition of the importance of the artisanal fisheries subsector to overcome challenges and improving resource management.

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data are the backbone of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). They reflect modelling choices made by the LCA practitioner that can strongly influence the results of environmental impact calculations. The high sensitivity of these data are the reason why they must be accurately documented and tend to the highest possible quality. High quality, well documented LCI data can also be shared between LCA practitioners, allowing productivity gains and better research reproducibility, in particular between practitioners who do not work on the same life cycle inventory database. Unfortunately, SimaPro (PRé Sustainability B.V.,2020), one of the most used LCA software solutions, has only limited features to document,review and exchange LCI data. ELDAM has been developed to fill this gap.

The Gambian and Malian fisheries and fish processing value chains are predominantly artisanal and represent a key source of protein and livelihoods, yet their eco-efficiency has not been studied to date. A Life Cycle Assessment was used to estimate the associated environmental impacts of those value chains and provide information on the eco-efficiency indicators, which relate technical efficiencies to environmental impacts. The results showed that industrial Gambian fleets' fuel use efficiency is rather low as compared with the global mean fuel use intensity (landed fish/consumed fuel) for both small pelagics and demersal fish. In Mali, the fuel use intensity of motorised artisanal fisheries is lower than the mean values for artisanal inland fisheries in developing countries, but the important increase of frozen imported fish from fish farming multiplies the estimated impacts by four. The least energy-intensive fisheries (cast nets and stow nets in Gambia and opportunistic fishers in Mali) feature better eco-efficiency scores. Based on the identified sources of inefficiencies, we suggest improvements in the landing/processing infrastructure and fishing units' engines, coupled with technical and business training and improved processing methods, to ameliorate seafood eco-efficiency and a stronger recognition of the importance of the artisanal fisheries subsector to overcome challenges and improving resource management.

Several studies have shown the benefits of using timber in the construction sector in terms of climate change, which has received the support of decision-makers. However, few studies focus on other environmental indicators. The environmental impacts (i.e., such as human health, ecosystem quality, and resources) of material substitutions, consequence of the increasing use of wood, are still lacking in the literature. Studies that compare different structural materials focus either on a single building or on one structural system that would be representative on a larger scale. However, the environmental benefits of some projects are not easily extrapolated to the scale of a given region with a variety of architectures. Higher-order effects, beyond the building scale, can indeed imply changes in the resource availability according to the unconstrained suppliers and resources. The objective of this paper is to assess the life cycle environmental consequences of wood substitutions at a regional scale for the non-residential construction sector. The increasing use of wood structures for non-residential buildings in the province of Quebec (Canada) is used as a case study. The method includes the development of material substitution factors by comparing several structures. The substitution factors show that, on average, wood can replace, simultaneously, 0.59 and 4.54 times the weight of steel and concrete, respectively. However, steel substitution has more advantages than concrete substitution. Among the tested parameters, the variability of the material substitution factors implies more uncertainties in the results. The originality of our study lies in the limitations that may change the conclusions drawn from the substitution at a large scale. With three substitution scenarios for four impact categories, the results showed an advantage of using wood in seven of the twelve combinations. The ecosystem quality indicator is the most unfavorable and shows opposite trends to cl

In the context of a low environmental impact energy mix, the embodied energy of building materials can account for up to 46% of a building's life cycle energy over a 50-year service life. Fifty percent of this energy corresponds to the combination of the structure and building envelope. While most studies have compared different residential building systems or wall assemblies, this study aims to quantify the contribution of initial embodied impacts to the environmental impacts of wall assemblies' life cycle for the exterior walls of an office building in Quebec City (Canada). Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessments were conducted on eight wall assemblies, three of which use light-frame construction, one lightweight steel framing, two cross-laminated timber and two glued-laminated timber in a post and beam approach. The life cycle impacts were evaluated using openLCA, the ecoinvent database and the TRACI method. Energy consumption during the use stage was simulated using EnergyPlus. The results indicate that initial embodied impacts can account for 40% to 66% of all environmental impacts throughout the wall assemblies' life cycle. These results suggest that, in this specific context, the initial embodied impacts can become the dominant source of environmental impacts in wall assemblies' life cycle. Many factors have been identified as affecting initial embodied impacts such as the choice, the quantity and the nature of materials. The results of this study will help decision makers to identify where efforts should be made to reduce a building's environmental impacts in similar context.

L’importance des changements climatiques et leurs répercussions grandissantes menacent le bien-être des habitants de la terre. Cette urgence climatique demande aux humains d’adapter leurs comportements rapidement, ce qui implique de grands efforts et certains sacrifices. Les actions visant à améliorer l’empreinte carbone individuelle sont déjà suggérées en grande quantité aux citoyens. Leur réel impact est toutefois rarement bien mesuré et il demeure donc difficile de choisir celles qui devraient être priorisées. Les cibles de réduction des gaz à effet de serre sont audacieuses, il est alors important de se doter d’un plan de réduction efficace afin de limiter les efforts à fournir. Une des étapes les plus importantes d’un plan de réduction rigoureux est la quantification. Elle est cependant très complexe et souvent, malheureusement, inaccessible pour le public. Certains citoyens consciencieux s’intéressent entre autres aux différents concepts d’habitation écologique. Cet essai vise à guider ces citoyens dans leurs décisions en effectuant la quantification des émissions d’une maison québécoise et de ses alternatives écologiques. Le Québec s’est doté d’une électricité des plus propres au monde, il est donc nécessaire d’offrir une analyse adaptée à ce contexte particulier. La méthode de quantification la plus appropriée pour l’évaluation des émissions de gaz à effet de serre d’une maison est l’analyse du cycle de vie. Le logiciel Impact Estimator permet d’appliquer cette méthode aux bâtiments en contexte québécois. Il quantifie les émissions associées à toutes les étapes du cycle de vie d’une maison et à l’ensemble de ses matériaux. Le simulateur énergétique HOT2000 est utilisé en complément pour évaluer les besoins en énergie du bâtiment. Grâce à ces outils, l’analyse du cycle de vie a pu être effectuée pour différents modèles de maison. Une maison de référence sert de point de comparaison. Cette maison de type bungalow, avec un sous-sol, chauffant à l’électricité et, Climate change and its growing impacts are threatening the earth’s inhabitant well-being. The urgency of the situation forces humans to quickly adapt their behaviors, which implies great efforts and some sacrifices. Actions to reduce carbon footprint are already proposed to citizens in great numbers. The actual impact of these actions is, however rarely well understood and therefore it is impossible to prioritize them. The targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are bold enough, it is than important to follow an efficient reduction plan to avoid making more sacrifices then necessary. One of the most important steps in the making of a rigorous reduction plan is the quantification. It is however very complex to perform and unfortunately often inaccessible to the public. Some committed citizens take a particular interest in the various eco-friendly home concepts. This essay aims to provide them with guidance with their decisions by performing the quantification of the emissions for a Quebec house and its ecological alternatives. Quebec has one of the cleanest electricity in the world, and thus it is necessary to provide an analysis that is adapted to this particular context. The most appropriate quantification method to evaluate the emissions of a house is the life cycle analysis. The software Impact Estimator allows the application of this method to buildings on the Quebec territory. It quantifies the emissions associated with every life cycle stage of a house and of all the materials it uses. The energy simulation modeling software HOT2000 is used in complement to evaluate the energy usage of the building. With these tools, it has been possible to perform the life cycle analysis of different house models. A house of reference was first defined, and it serves of a benchmark for the other models. This bungalow style house, with a basement, heating with electricity and using common materials represents the type of house that is still mostly buil

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data are the backbone of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). They reflect modelling choices made by the LCA practitioner that can strongly influence the results of environmental impact calculations. The high sensitivity of these data are the reason why they must be accurately documented and tend to the highest possible quality. High quality, well documented LCI data can also be shared between LCA practitioners, allowing productivity gains and better research reproducibility, in particular between practitioners who do not work on the same life cycle inventory database. Unfortunately, SimaPro (PRé Sustainability B.V.,2020), one of the most used LCA software solutions, has only limited features to document,review and exchange LCI data. ELDAM has been developed to fill this gap.

A novel approach is proposed to evaluate the impact of forestry on ecosystem quality in life cycle assessment (LCA) combining a naturalness assessment model with a species richness relationship. The approach is applied to a case study evaluating different forest management strategies involving concomitantly silvicultural scenarios (plantation only, careful logging only or the current mix of both) combined with an increasing share of protected area for wood production in a Québec black spruce forest. The naturalness index is useful to compare forest management scenarios and can help evaluate conservation needs considering the type of management foreseen for wood production. The results indicate that it is preferable to intensify forest management over a small proportion of the forest territory while ensuring strict protection over the remaining portion, compared to extensive forest management over most of the forested area. To explore naturalness introduction in LCA, a provisory curve relating the naturalness index (NI) with the potential disappeared fraction of species (PDF) was developed using species richness data from the literature. LCA impact scores in PDF for producing 1 m3 of wood might lead to consistent results with the naturalness index but the uncertainty is high while the window leading to consistent results is narrow