IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i11p6467-d570125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis and Assessment of the Building Life Cycle. Indicators and Tools for the Early Design Stage

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Giordano

    (Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy)

  • Federica Gallina

    (Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy)

  • Benedetta Quaglio

    (Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy)

Abstract

Construction is a crucial sector in terms of worldwide environmental impacts. Building material production along with transport and demolition are no exception, because in the last decades, they have constantly increased their carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Actions and initiatives are therefore important to tackle the relationship between buildings and climate change. Particularly, it is necessary to develop Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools useful to calculate the environmental impact of buildings and to make them accessible to designers and stakeholders acting in the building sector. The article aims to contribute to the international debate about environmental assessment indicators for buildings and the simplified LCA based tools. The Embodied Energy (EE) and the Embodied Carbon (EC) have been investigated. The former, related to primary energy content; the latter, associated with the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions. EE and EC have been used as indicators for the development of a calculation tool named EURECA, for assessing the environmental impact of the building over its life cycle, as defined by the EN 15978:2011 standard. The Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean’s house designed and built by an international academic team has been an opportunity to check the indicators and the tool’s effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Giordano & Federica Gallina & Benedetta Quaglio, 2021. "Analysis and Assessment of the Building Life Cycle. Indicators and Tools for the Early Design Stage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6467-:d:570125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6467/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6467/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elena Fregonara & Roberto Giordano & Diana Rolando & Jean-Marc Tulliani, 2016. "Integrating Environmental and Economic Sustainability in New Building Construction and Retrofits," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 3-28, October.
    2. Tajda Potrč Obrecht & Martin Röck & Endrit Hoxha & Alexander Passer, 2020. "BIM and LCA Integration: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Rafael Herrera-Limones & Ángel Luis León-Rodríguez & Álvaro López-Escamilla, 2019. "Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean: Comfort and the Balance between Passive and Active Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Anita Naneva & Marcella Bonanomi & Alexander Hollberg & Guillaume Habert & Daniel Hall, 2020. "Integrated BIM-Based LCA for the Entire Building Process Using an Existing Structure for Cost Estimation in the Swiss Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Säwén, Toivo & Sasic Kalagasidis, Angela & Hollberg, Alexander, 2024. "Critical perspectives on life cycle building performance assessment tool reviews," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Cameron Taylor & Krishanu Roy & Aflah Alamsah Dani & James B. P. Lim & Karnika De Silva & Mark Jones, 2023. "Delivering Sustainable Housing through Material Choice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kai Xue & Md. Uzzal Hossain & Meng Liu & Mingjun Ma & Yizhi Zhang & Mengqiang Hu & XiaoYi Chen & Guangyu Cao, 2021. "BIM Integrated LCA for Promoting Circular Economy towards Sustainable Construction: An Analytical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Tiziano Dalla Mora & Erika Bolzonello & Carmine Cavalliere & Fabio Peron, 2020. "Key Parameters Featuring BIM-LCA Integration in Buildings: A Practical Review of the Current Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-33, September.
    3. Agnieszka Leśniak & Monika Górka & Izabela Skrzypczak, 2021. "Barriers to BIM Implementation in Architecture, Construction, and Engineering Projects—The Polish Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, April.
    4. Marie Nehasilová & Antonín Lupíšek & Petra Lupíšková Coufalová & Tomáš Kupsa & Jakub Veselka & Barbora Vlasatá & Julie Železná & Pavla Kunová & Martin Volf, 2022. "Rapid Environmental Assessment of Buildings: Linking Environmental and Cost Estimating Databases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Alice Barreca & Rocco Curto & Giorgia Malavasi & Diana Rolando, 2022. "Energy Retrofitting for the Modern Heritage Enhancement in Weak Real Estate Markets: The Olivetti Housing Stock in Ivrea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    6. Javier Orozco-Messana & Milagro Iborra-Lucas & Raimon Calabuig-Moreno, 2021. "Neighbourhood Modelling for Urban Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-10, April.
    7. Antonio Millán-Jiménez & Rafael Herrera-Limones & Álvaro López-Escamilla & Emma López-Rubio & Miguel Torres-García, 2021. "Confinement, Comfort and Health: Analysis of the Real Influence of Lockdown on University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-15, May.
    8. Ahmad Jrade & Farnaz Jalaei & Jieying Jane Zhang & Saeed Jalilzadeh Eirdmousa & Farzad Jalaei, 2023. "Potential Integration of Bridge Information Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing Tools for Infrastructure Projects within Construction 4.0: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-25, October.
    9. Yasser Yahya Al-Ashmori & Idris Othman & Al-Hussein M. H. Al-Aidrous, 2022. "“Values, Challenges, and Critical Success Factors” of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Malaysia: Experts Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    10. Juan Francisco Fernández Rodríguez, 2023. "Sustainable Design Protocol in BIM Environments: Case Study of 3D Virtual Models of a Building in Seville (Spain) Based on BREEAM Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-29, March.
    11. Alice Barreca & Rocco Curto & Diana Rolando, 2018. "Housing Vulnerability and Property Prices: Spatial Analyses in the Turin Real Estate Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, August.
    12. Regitze Kjær Zimmermann & Simone Bruhn & Harpa Birgisdóttir, 2021. "BIM-Based Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings—An Investigation of Industry Practice and Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, May.
    13. Marco Scherz & Antonija Ana Wieser & Alexander Passer & Helmuth Kreiner, 2022. "Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the Procurement Process of Buildings: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Clavijo-Núñez, Susana & Herrera-Limones, Rafael & Rey-Pérez, Julia & Torres-García, Miguel, 2022. "Energy poverty in Andalusia. An analysis through decentralised indicators," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    15. Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer & José Antonio Gutiérrez Moreno & Carmen Llatas, 2023. "Utilization of an Automatic Tool for Building Material Selection by Integrating Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Early Design Stages in BIM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    16. José Pedro Carvalho & Fernanda Schmitd Villaschi & Luís Bragança, 2021. "Assessing Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Impacts of Building Construction Solutions with BIM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-23, August.
    17. Rafael Horn & Sebastian Ebertshäuser & Roberta Di Bari & Olivia Jorgji & René Traunspurger & Petra von Both, 2020. "The BIM2LCA Approach: An Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-Based Interface to Integrate Life Cycle Assessment in Integral Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-30, August.
    18. Luka Adanič & Sara Guerra de Oliveira & Andrej Tibaut, 2021. "BIM and Mechanical Engineering—A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    19. Jan Růžička & Jakub Veselka & Zdeněk Rudovský & Stanislav Vitásek & Petr Hájek, 2022. "BIM and Automation in Complex Building Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.
    20. Rafael Herrera-Limones & Antonio Millán-Jiménez & Álvaro López-Escamilla & Miguel Torres-García, 2020. "Health and Habitability in the Solar Decathlon University Competitions: Statistical Quantification and Real Influence on Comfort Conditions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-25, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6467-:d:570125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.