Digitizing buildings sustainability assessment: Integrating energy audits, operational energy assessments, and life cycle assessments for enhanced building assessment

In the context of escalating environmental concerns and technological evolution, this paper examines the convergence and evolution of three cornerstone methodologies in sustainable building management: energy audits, operational energy assessments, and life cycle assessments, with a particular focus on the role of digitization. Recent advancements have not only refined these methodologies but also facilitated their integration, leveraging digital tools and big data analytics for enhanced accuracy and efficiency. Through an analytical lens, this study investigates how digitization enables a seamless overlap among these assessments, providing a multidimensional view of a building's energy and environmental performance. Additionally, this study introduces a proposed indicator that balances energy savings with embodied carbon emissions, facilitating data-driven decision-making. Case study is employed to illustrate the practical application and benefits of integrating digitized methodologies in achieving superior sustainability outcomes. For instance, several building energy improvement options were considered and the analysis revealed that the best trade-off solution will result in 9.88 % reduction in annual energy consumption and a 6.14 % increase in GWP, resulting in a GWP per energy saved of 8.52E+01, kg CO2 eq./kWh. The findings propose a forward-looking framework that harnesses the power of digital technologies to streamline the assessment processes, enabling more sophisticated, data-driven decision-making in building design, operation, and decommissioning for minimized environmental impact and optimized energy efficiency.