Environmental performance evaluation of thermal insulation materials and its impact on the building

The purpose of this paper is to examine the building's environmental performance through the insulation's material selection. Contemporary insulation materials achieve thermal conductivity values of less than 0.04 W/mK, whilst a plethora of materials, which fulfil specific requirements like mechanical and physical features according to the object specific specifications, can be found in the market. Still, the latter is dominated by inorganic fibrous materials and organic foamy ones, which were the subject of this study. The two materials’ production process was registered and evaluated based on environmental criteria with Life Cycle Analysis’ implementation, which was supported by the GEMIS model. The results obtained were used to set operating performance indicators and environmental condition indicators based on the ISO 14031 standard and accomplish the Environmental Performance Evaluation for the two materials. Moreover, insulation materials’ life cycle correlation to building's life cycle examined and expressed with energy consumption indicators.