Construction solutions for energy efﬁcient single-family house based on its life cycle multi-criteria analysis: a case study Violeta Motuzien _ e a , Artur Rogo  za a , Vil  un _ e Lapinskien _ e a , Tatjana Vilutien _ e b, * a Department of Building Energetics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio ave.11, LT-10223, Lithuania b Department of Construction Technology and Management, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio ave.11, LT-10223, Lithuania article info Article history: Received 19 January 2015 Received in revised form 7 August 2015 Accepted 25 August 2015 Available online xxx Keywords: Sustainable development Energy efﬁciency Life cycle assessment SimaPro MCDA Life cycle costs abstract Improvements in the design of energy efﬁcient houses lead to the increase of environmental impact in construction and demolition phases, creating a need to investigate the use of construction materials more carefully. The approach presented herein is based on a complex system of criteria that allows performing comprehensive evaluation of the alternative design solutions. This article presents a case study which illustrates the proposed approach. In this study we estimate the environmental impacts of three alternative types of envelopes (masonry, log and timber frame) of an energy efﬁcient single-family house, simultaneously identifying the most rational alternative according to the considered criteria (reduction of expenses, non-renewable primary energy, Green House Gases and ozone layer depletion). Results of the life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis are evaluated by the multi-criteria decision analysis method and criteria weights of impact categories are determined by the analytic hierarchy process method. The results obtained with the life cycle assessment and life cycle cost show that in the case of buildings, which are designed according to the passive house requirements, the share of the embodied input and output ﬂows in the whole life cycle generally constitutes more than 1/3. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The construction sector plays an important role in the European economy. It generates almost 10% of GDP and provides 20 million jobs (European Commission, 2012). Construction is also a major consumer of natural resources. The energy performance of build- ings and resource efﬁciency in manufacturing, transport and the use of products for the construction of buildings have an important impact on energy, climate change and the environment. Residential building sector is one of the biggest consumers of energy with one of the largest cost-effective energy saving potentials (Commission of the European Communities, 2006). Single-family houses are also identiﬁed as signiﬁcantly important, since they are responsible for 60% of the EU CO 2 emission from residential sector (Petersdorff et al., 2006). The increase of energy efﬁciency in the buildings' sector is also one of the key objectives of the European Union energy policy. With the adoption of recast Directive 2010/31/EU (European Parliament and the Council, 2010) e the main legislative measure in build- ings' energy efﬁciency sector, Member States are obliged to move towards new and retroﬁtted nearly-zero energy buildings by 2020. Directive encourages architects and planners to properly consider the optimal combination of improvements in energy efﬁciency and the use of energy from renewable sources when planning, designing, building and renovating industrial or residential areas. Directive on energy efﬁciency 2012/27/EU (European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, 2012) also aims at increasing energy efﬁciency in buildings. However, within the framework of both directives, the energy efﬁciency is understood as a decrease of operational energy consumption of the building. Meanwhile, Directive 2009/125/EC on eco-design (European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, 2009) has Abbreviations: AEC, architects, engineers and constructors; AHP, Analytic Hier- archy Process; BIM, Building information modelling; COPRAS, COmplex PRopor- tional ASsesment; CR, consistency ratio; DHW, domestic hot water; GDP, gross domestic product; GHG, Green House Gases; GW, global warming; LCA, life cycle assessment; LCC, life cycle cost; MCDA, Multi Criteria Decision Analysis; MCDM, Multi Criteria Decision Making; OLD, ozone layer depletion; PE, primary energy. * Corresponding author. Department of Construction Technology and Manage- ment; Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio ave. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania. Tel.: þ370 5 2745233, þ370 61290700; fax: þ370 52745231. E-mail addresses: violeta.motuziene@vgtu.lt (V. Motuzien _ e), artur.rogoza@vgtu. lt (A. Rogo za), vilune.lapinskiene@vgtu.lt (V. Lapinskien _ e), tatjana.vilutiene@vgtu.lt (T. Vilutien _ e). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.103 0959-6526/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10 Please cite this article in press as: Motuzien _ e, V., et al., Construction solutions for energy efﬁcient single-family house based on its life cycle multi-criteria analysis: a case study, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.103