Athena Chair

November 4, 2009

Assessing the life cycle impacts of buildings

New Athena Chair helps U of C’s EVDS faculty reach “critical mass” of researchers

Getachew Assefa

With the construction industry striving hard to improve sustainability and measure its environmental impact, the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design is taking a major research and leadership role in the emerging field of life cycle assessment (LCA).

Getachew Assefa, one of the world’s leading LCA experts, has joined the U of C under the newly established Athena Chair in Life Cycle Assessment. The field of life cycle assessment evaluates and compares the full range of environmental impacts of products and services, in order to identify the least life cycle burdensome.

“We need to know the whole story about the buildings we produce—from the initial design phase and the type of materials used in construction, all the way through to the energy providers and waste management systems,” says Assefa. “There is a growing interest in this field both in the industry and consumers. And along with developing methods, tools and databases, we need to help communicate the information out to the end-users in an understandable format.”

Supported by FPInnovations—Forintek Division, Alberta Advanced Education and Technology and the Alberta Forestry Research Institute, the Athena Chair in Life Cycle Assessment is offered in collaboration with the Ontario-based Athena Institute and will focus on LCA application to new and existing buildings.

“This chair is particularly unique as it is held in the Faculty of Environmental Design rather than as a stand-alone chair,” says Assefa. “Being able to work closely with EVDS designers and researchers as well as the building and energy sectors and the Athena Institute will make this research even more relevant.”

Part of Assefa’s work will be integrating his life cycle assessment research into existing systems and proving that more environmentally friendly structures can also have economic advantages. “If you make a higher initial investment in a more energy-efficient building with smaller environmental footprint, you will more than recoup those costs over its full life cycle, which could be 50 years or more.”

EVDS Interim Dean Loraine Fowlow says the Athena Chair position will bring together a wide range of fields, scales, technologies, approaches, and sectors. “This means that Dr. Assefa will be in an excellent position to use his research to bridge across disciplines and areas of inquiry, both within EVDS, as well as externally into the larger academic and business communities."
Assefa will build the critical mass of researchers in EVDS, joining the Chair in Integrated Design and the Chair in Sustainable Building Technologies, says Professor Jim Love, who chaired the selection committee.

FPInnovations Group Leader Jennifer O’Connor says the chair in will strengthen the academic backbone and profile of LCA, increase the knowledge base and help to develop a larger pool of trained practitioners.

“FPInnovations has been engaged in life cycle assessment work for many years, specifically in the area of building materials,” she says. “We have a strong interest in accelerating the uptake of LCA principles in design in order to truly improve the overall environmental footprint of the construction sector.”

Assefa is originally from Ethiopia but worked for many years as a senior researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He has a BSc degree in chemical engineering, an MSc in environmental engineering and sustainable infrastructure and a PhD in industrial ecology.