Determining the impacts and recovery potentials of a modular designed residential building using the novel LCA-C2C–PBSCI method

Abstract

Assessing the circularity and impact potentials of buildings has become a growing concern in the scientific community. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a key tool used to evaluate the environmental impact potentials of buildings, but its adoption for assessing circularity is faced with several limitations. In this study, the novel LCA-cradle-to-cradle-predictive building systemic circularity indicator (LCA-C2C–PBSCI) method is adopted to evaluate the impact and recovery potentials of a modular designed residential building in China. Case scenarios based on the forecasted recyclable percentages of materials and recyclability plan of the case building were modeled and assessed using the PBSCI. The impact potentials of the case scenarios were also concurrently assessed using the LCA-C2C aspect of the method. It was found that, the average product utility, mass of materials and the adopted recyclability plan of the case building influences the rate of recyclability at end-of-life (EoL). Also, the chosen EoL allocation approach, the predicted mass recyclable and the adopted disposal scenarios hugely influence the impact potentials of the case building. The recommended scenario for the case building was one which had a high recoverable potential (85.3% of mass recyclable), but low impact potentials (432.021 kg CO2/m2). The adoption of this iterative method for assessing the impacts and recovery potentials of buildings does not only provide a means to formulate decisions based on the environmental impacts of materials or product system only, but also a way to consider the technical, social, and economic implications of such decisions towards the attainment of sustainable development.