Recycled versus non-recycled insulation alternatives: LCA analysis for different climatic conditions in Spain

Abstract The construction sector represents more than 40% of energy consumption in the European Union, as well as one of the biggest causes of environmental impact. Therefore, this sector needs a great deal of intervention through policies that promote the energetic efficiency of the buildings. One of the most important structural components to reach this energetic efficiency is the facades. In this work, the facade ventilated is chosen due to its better thermal insulation behaviour. The environmental impact of the facade ventilated depends on the thermal insulation material. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the environmental impact of different ventilated facades according to their thermal insulation behavior. For this purpose, the life-cycle assessment is applied in ventilated facades with different materials in different locations. The materials studied are the rock wool, the natural cork and the recycled cork, and the locations considered are the different climatic areas of Spain. To reach a complete environmental assessment all the ventilated facades life-cycle is considered, from cradle to grave. To do this we use the Open LCA software with the Ecoinvent database with the ReCiPe method. The results show that the recycled cork is the thermal insulation with the lowest environmental impact regardless the location.