Holistic Approach for Assessing Buildings’ Environmental Impact and User Comfort from Early Design: A Method Combining Life Cycle Assessment, BIM, and Active House Protocol

Abstract

Due to our increasing dependence on resources and energy, climate change is among the most tangible issues we are facing today. The construction industry has been identified as a key sector to intervene in, but mitigation strategies must focus on more than just operational energy. As current climate policies recommend, designers should consider the broader framework of environmental impacts characterizing the entire building lifecycle. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) considers the mentioned aspects. Nevertheless, the complexity of LCA and the criticalities of related tools prevent the application of the approach during decisive early stages. Additionally, LCA allows the estimation of environmental issues, but fails to describe other dimensions of sustainability. The article proposes an evaluation method to support decision-making during the design of sustainable buildings. The method exploits the LCA tool and the assessment framework provided by a Green Sustainable Building Certification (Active House) integrated with BIM. The approach was applied and proven through a case study: a residential single-family building in northern Italy, comparing two technological options. The study confirmed the effectiveness of the multicriteria evaluation framework that, from the early design stage, can be used to measure the environmental impact of buildings alongside implications for the final users’ comfort.