Life cycle assessment methodology integrated with BIM as a decision-making tool at early-stages of building design

Abstract

Climate change is one of the major concerns worldwide and greenhouse gas emissions plays an important role in increasing the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, the construction industry is one of that presents a considerable environmental impact as it consumes large amounts of natural resources and energy. Aiming to investigate the environmental impacts, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology evaluates products and services showing the similarities and differences in evaluating midpoint and endpoint impact categories. This study reviews LCA from a building perspective and empowers the decision-making process and sustainable building design in the construction sector. The novelty is to estimate the operating energy performance and evaluate the endpoint impacts of building materials at an early designing stage, considering two methods of construction; concrete construction and steel construction. This work follows the methodological framework of LCA based on ISO 14040 and 14044 guidelines within the available database, using Autodesk Green Building Studio application in Autodesk Revit and Open LCA software based on two assessment methods: IMPACT 2002+ and ILCD 2011. A case study of a multi-story office building is applied to achieve the objectives of this work. The building is structured at four levels of subsystems and associated construction materials: basic structure, walls, finishing, and windows. Results indicate that using steel construction instead of concrete construction is more environmentally friendly in such types of buildings. It encourages the application of innovative techniques in the production process to protect natural resources, reduce energy consumption, and protecting the built environment.