Sustainability and socio-enviro-technical systems: modeling total cost of ownership in capital facilities

Abstract

Investment in sustainability strategies and technologies holds promise for significant cost savings over the operational phase of a facility's life cycle, while more effectively meeting stakeholder needs. However, accurately estimating the first costs of a green project during the early concept development stages is challenging, and effective ways to comprehensively predict potential lifecycle cost impacts of sustainability strategies do not exist. This paper describes a agent-based model (ABM) of the Total Cost of Ownership of green facilities applicable at the earliest stages of concept development. An ABM approach captures the social, environmental, and engineering systems that characterize a facility's life cycle cost. It permits evaluating the impact of the institutional and industry environment on facility life cycle performance, and also captures the cost impacts of tightly coupled facility systems that characterize green design.