The LCA approach as a tool for the management of an industrial warehouse

The main objective of this research is to analyze the performance of an industrial building in a 50 years timeline. The research has followed the idea to show when an industrial building became expensive in term of consumption and consequently in term of global footprint. The analysis was performed in Italy in a case study in the EmiliaRomagna region. In particular, the construction analyzed is in Modena, a city where the economic growth of the Fifties was strongly based on the industrial production derived from craftsman cooperatives. The new activities were installed in conjunction with the residences of the workers. During the period of the post-war, reconstruction were concentrated in this area - called Craftsman Village - small mechanical factories, lumber mills, ceramic factories etc. Nowadays, after 50 years, this economic model has seen a crisis phase, due to economic globalization and to new business re-allocation in bigger industrial areas. In the meantime, the Craftsman Village embedded in the city, has become mostly obsolete. The public administration has recently proposed some strategies for the rehabilitation of the area and approved some guidelines with the aim of creating a new pole for highly specialized crafts. In this context, our goal is to define the footprint generated by building rehabilitation that needs a process of re-generation. The analysis of the ecological footprint was based on Life Cycle Assessment methodology and has been assisted by SimaPro 7.3.3. software. We proposed three scenarios: Conservation, Rehabilitation, Demolition and New Construction. Preliminary evaluation scored the management of the energy consumption became prohibitive in a term of 10/15 years. The final result shows and recommends the Rehabilitation Scenarios for short-term period (10/15 years) and “Demolition and New Construction Scenario” for the mediumlong-term period (25/50 years).