Title Page -- Contents -- Introduction -- Background -- Quantifying ecological sustainability -- Current environmental policy -- Problem definition -- Objective and research questions -- Research approach: LCA methodology -- General description -- Limitations of LCA -- Research approach: reference building -- Structure of the thesis -- References -- Environmental impact of dwellings in use: maintenance of facade components -- Introduction -- Methodology -- Life cycle assessment -- Reference building -- Scenarios -- Energy -- Assumptions and limitations -- Results and analysis -- Comparison of different materials for building components -- Comparison of different maintenance strategies for facade components -- Normalised environmental impact -- Contributing factors -- Reducing the environmental impact of maintenance of facade components -- Discussion -- Service life -- Transportation -- Further research -- Conclusions -- References -- LCA-based environmental assessment of the use and maintenance of heating and ventilation systems in Dutch dwellings -- Introduction -- Methodology -- Life cycle assessment -- Reference building -- Heating and ventilation system concepts -- Energy consumption -- Maintenance scenarios -- Assumptions and limitations -- Results, analysis and discussion -- Comparison of heating and ventilation systems -- Normalised environmental impact -- Contributing factors -- Sensitivity analysis -- Uncertainty -- Reducing the environmental impact of climate systems -- Conclusions -- References -- Environmental impact of building-related and user-related energy consumption in dwellings -- Introduction -- Methodology -- Life cycle assessment -- Reference building -- Energy consumption scenarios -- Calculation of gas and electricity consumption -- Assumptions and limitations -- Results -- Comparison of energy consumption scenarios.

Comparing variations in electricity and gas consumption due to user behaviour -- Environmental impact of gas consumption -- Environmental impact of Dutch electricity consumption -- Normalisation -- Sensitivity analysis: electricity supply -- Conclusion and discussion -- References -- Total environmental impact of maintenance, replacement and energy consumption in Dutch dwellings -- Introduction -- Methodology -- Kitchen, bathroom and toilet -- Scenarios for the operational phase -- Results -- Comparison of scenarios -- Factors causing environmental impact -- Environmental impact per group of activities -- Accumulation of environmental impact over time -- Overall conclusion -- References -- Discussion, conclusions and recommendations -- Introduction -- Discussion and conclusions -- Environmental impacts in the operational phase -- Significant contributing factors -- Parameter variations -- Effective reduction of environmental impacts -- Validity of results for other situations -- Main conclusions -- Recommendations for policy, practice and further research -- Recommendations for policy goals -- Recommendations for practice -- Recommendations for further research -- References -- Summary -- Samenvatting (Dutch summary) -- Appendix 1. Environmental impact categories -- Appendix 2. Results Chapter 2 -- Appendix 3. Results Chapter 3 -- Appendix 4. Results Chapter 4 -- Appendix 5. Results Chapter 5 -- Curriculum vitae.