Development of an estimation method for inventory data on foreign-made building-products

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K06615
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Architectural environment/Equipment
• Research Institution: Prefectural University of Hiroshima
• Principal Investigator: Kobayashi Kensuke 県立広島大学, 生命環境学部, 准教授 (30581839)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-10-21 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: ライフサイクルアセスメント / インベントリデータ / バックグラウンドデータ / 原単位データ / 輸出入 / CO2排出量 / 推計

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Inventory databases are essential for LCA researchers when calculating environmental loads. Excellent and comprehensive ones are available in Japan, Europe, and the United States; however, only few in other countries. Recently, in the building field, studies have become increasingly more conscious of differences between domestic and imported products. The purpose of this research is to develop a simple and accurate method of estimating data of foreign products utilizing Japanese inventory database “IDEA”.
Through analyzing model data, international differences in the intensities are found attributable to those of power generation, fuel composition ratio, etc. Based on this, an estimation method was developed using statistics which are obtainable commonly from other countries plus detailed ones published from countries where they make large-scale trade with Japan. Subsequently, it was verified that the estimation accuracy was generally good.

Free Research Field

環境工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で提案した推計手法を用いて、我が国最大のインベントリデータベースであるIDEA（Inventory Database for Environmental Analysis）の海外版が公表される予定で、データベースの開発が進んでいる。本データベースは、カーボンフットプリントやエコリーフ環境ラベルをはじめ我が国のLCAに関わる様々な分析に用いられており、こうした評価において輸出入の分析が可能となる点で、社会的インパクトは非常に大きいものと認識している。