Use of the EVAMED tool to assess the carbon footprint of a building with a life cycle approach in the Latin American context

Abstract

This work presents the design and the first advances of the EVAMED tool (Environmental Assessment of Buildings with a Life Cycle approach). Its objective is to assist the building stakeholders, mainly in Latin America, in the first design phases, for make buildings with a lower environmental impact throughout their life cycle. EVAMED's interface is friendly and intuitive, as it is aimed at a non-LCA expert user. The configuration of the project to be evaluated through EVAMED is done over a ‘wizard’ type process. The results are presented through interactive graphs that allow visualizing the potential environmental impacts from different approaches. This allows different types of evaluations to be carried out, for example, analyzing the building Carbon Footprint, the environmental impact of its use phase, or evaluating its complete life cycle. EVAMED is linked to 3D BIM models through a plug-in developed in DYNAMO. This allows to obtain the quantity of materials, either from a detailed model or from a simplified one. This feature allows the user to evaluate different construction systems for the modeled building without necessarily having made a detailed model. EVAMED uses information from various databases such as MEXICANIUH (regional database of life cycle inventories for Latin America), Environmental Product Declarations, and ECOINVENT V3. The user complements the configuration of the project by specifying the type of machines and transport used during the respective stages of its life cycle. A case study is presented where the carbon footprint of two housing proposals is analyzed where one of them considers the use of thermal insulation to improve energy efficiency during the operational stage. The case using thermal insulation reduces their life cycle carbon footprint by almost 40% compared to case who does not use it. This is due to the reduction in energy demand during the use phase, even though the carbon footprint is higher during the production phase due to the manufacture and transport of the thermal insulation. EVAMED represents a step forward in building sector sustainability, mainly in the Latin America region. Is a tool looking to facilitate the decision-making during the early stages of buildings design process, considering their energy and environmental performance throughout their life cycle.