Hållbarhetsmått i Modulärt och Konventionellt Byggande : En Kvantitativ och Kvalitativ Fallstudie från Sverige
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The construction industry remains one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gasemissions and material waste, prompting a growing need for sustainable alternatives toconventional building methods. This thesis presents a quantitative comparison of modular andconventional construction techniques in Sweden, evaluating their relative performance acrossenvironmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. The study focuses on a reallife industrial building (CONV) and a hypothetical modular equivalent (MOD), designed to meetidentical functional and regulatory specifications. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA)was performed for both cases, with emphasis on embodied carbon emissions. Constructionwaste, on-site labor hours, incident frequency, labor costs, and labor hours were also assessedto capture social and economic sustainability metrics. Results indicate that while modular construction initially exhibited higher embodied carbonemissions due to increased steel use, it significantly outperformed conventional construction interms of waste reduction (–36.8%), on-site labor hours (–63%), labor costs (–22%), and laborhours (–34%). Sensitivity analyses revealed that the environmental performance of modularbuildings is highly dependent on structural design choices and supply chain emission factors.The findings support modular construction as a viable and scalable approach for advancingsustainability in the built environment, particularly when supported by optimized materialsourcing, factory energy efficiency, and policy alignment. This thesis contributes new insightsinto the trade-offs and opportunities of modular construction and offers recommendations forfuture research and industrial implementation.
Author: A.E Manntz, Emilia
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7112159045