Ventilated façades and thermal coatings compared: environmental product declaration and energy certification in a study case.

Since the construction sector is responsible for a large part of environmental pollution all around the world, the current situation is characterized by the need of rethinking the sustainability of existing buildings. My research meets the essence of combining studies of construction technologies from two different angles: the environmental impact of construction materials on one side and the energy consumption for the building management on the other side. Seven types of building technologies between thermal coatings and ventilated façades were considered as options to renovate the hospital of San Benedetto del Tronto: polyurethane, rock wool or glass wool thermal coat and ventilated façade with polyurethane, rock wool or glass wool as insulation and aluminium or ceramic as cladding. SimaPro and EPD (2008) method were performed. By carrying out a comparative analysis of the environmental results for all thermal coatings and ventilated façades studied, glass wool thermal coat had the lowest impact potentials on the environment. By adopting Edilclima software, a second research had been carried out on the quantity of CO2 (global warming impact category) released in the environment by managing the heating system during wintertime. Glass wool thermal coat resulted to be the less impactful on the environment related to the global warming category.