”Life-cycle assessments on Maintenance and Renovation for Sustainable built heritage (Life-on-MaRS)”

Purpose and goal:

The aim of the project is an increased understanding of how energy efficiency can be integrated with a continuous process of care and maintenance for a sustainable long-term management of heritage buildings

Implementation:

The project compares and assess various scenarios for renovation and maintenance of a number of historic buildings with regard to the impact on cultural values, energy use, climate impact and costs from a life cycle perspective.

Expected results:

• An evaluation and comparison of different strategies for renovation and maintenance of historic buildings from a life cycle perspective.
• To show the potential for applying life cycle assessments in the maintenance of buildings with cultural value.
• To understand how and in what cases an healthy maintenance of historic buildings can have beneficial effects compared to an in-depth energy renovation.

Exploitation of the results:

The target group are the owners and managers of heritage buildings, such as homeowners, real estate companies and tenant-owner associations. The project will support them in the decision-making about the sustainable and long-term maintenance of their properties with regard to energy, costs and carbon dioxide emissions from a life-cycle perspective. Various competencies from cultural heritage professionals and SMEs will be involved.

Project team:

Andrea Luciani & Sofia Lidelow, Luleå University of Technology | Farshid Shadram, IVL, Swedish Environmental Institute | Stephan Fickler, Swedish Building Protection Association

The project is  funded by Energimyndigheten within the national research programme “Spara och Bevara” for energy efficiency in historic buildings.