Abstract
In the United States, commercial buildings accounted for about 19 percent of the total
primary energy consumption in 2012. Further, 29 percent of the site energy in commercial buildings
was consumed for space heating and cooling. Applying insulation materials to building envelopes is an
effective way of reducing energy consumption for heating and cooling, and limiting the negative
environmental impacts from the buildings sector. While insulation materials have a net positive
impact on the environment due to reduced energy consumption, they also have some negative impacts
associated with their 'embodied energy'. The total lifetime environmental impacts of insulation
materials are a summation of: (1) direct impacts due to their embodied energy, and (2) indirect or
impacts avoided due to the reduced building energy consumption. Here, assessments of the lifetime
environmental impacts of selected insulation materials are presented. Direct and indirect
environmental impact factors were estimated for the cradle-to-grave insulation life cycle stages.
Impact factors were calculated for two categories: primary energy consumption and global warming
potential. The direct impact factors were calculated using data from existing literature and a life cycle
assessment software. The indirect impact factors were calculated through simulations of a set of
standard whole-building models.
