Life cycle environmental performance of material specification: a BIM-enhanced comparative assessment

Abstract

The study aimed at evaluating the extent to which different building materials specifications affect building lifecycle environmental performance, using a Building Information Modelling (BIM) enhanced lifecycle assessment (LCA) methodology. A combination of Revit Architecture which is a BIM based design and analysis tool, an energy simulation tool known as Green Building Studio (GBS) and LCA tool known as ATHENA Impact Estimator were used for the assessment. The LCA was carried out on a life case study of a 2100m 2 one-storey school building as well as its variability analysis, by varying materials specifications in terms of whole building materials. The lifecycle performance of the buildings was primarily evaluated in terms of its Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Health Impacts.The findings of the study show that irrespective of materials used, buildings that are based on renewable energy perform better than those based on fossil fuels over its lifecycle. In terms of building materials, both environmental and health preference of buildings congruently range from timber, brick/block, steel, to Insulated Concrete Foams, in a descending order. The study suggests that as buildings become more energy-efficient during operational stages, serious attention needs to be given to their embodied impacts.The study lay out a methodological framework that could be adopted by industry practitioners in evaluating lifecycle environmental impacts of different BIM modelled materials options at building conception stage. This has the tendency of ensuring that most lifecycle environmentally beneficial materials combinations are selected during specification and construction.

Are sustainable buildings healthy? An investigation of lifecycle relationship between building sustainability and its environmental health impacts

“…This is in line with earlier studies, which posit that the more energy efficient a building, the less its impacts on the environment (Dodoo et al, 2012). Similarly, the On the other hand, the lifecycle human health impact of the building typologies also range from one typology to another, with buildings employing renewable technology having lesser health impacts than those using fossil fuel (see Ajayi et al (2015b), this could be tackled by allocating eco-pints to different materials so that designers would be encouraged to specify environmental friendly materials for their designs. …”

“…Notwithstanding the understanding that environmental impacts of buildings span from its cradle to grave, operational impacts have been of major concern. Although, evidence suggests that operational stage contributes largest proportion of buildings' lifecycle impacts (Ajayi et al, 2015b;Dodoo et al, 2012), there is need to reduce environmental impacts of other stages of buildings' lifecycle.…”

“…However, apart from the indoor environment, there is a general paucity of literature on the whole life health impacts of buildings. This is albeit the fact that materials manufacturing and transportation, building construction, operation and end of life demotion have the potentials of producing particulate matters capable of affecting human health (Ajayi et al, 2015b). In order to provide a theoretical background for understanding the relationship between lifecycle environmental and health impacts of buildings, this section provides a review of extant literatures.…”

Design for Deconstruction (DfD): Critical success factors for diverting end-of-life waste from landfills

“…In this way, Design for Deconstruction (DfD) will increase 53 the cost-effectiveness of material recovery and reuse from the early design stages ( requires a holistic rethink of entire construction activities. This means that any promising 65 innovation within the AEC industry requires BIM compliance (Ajayi et al, 2015). Laying on 66 this premise, the overall aim of this paper is to detail the development of BIM based 67…”

“…This shows that in the UK alone, about 16 40 million tonnes of waste could be diverted from landfills (DEFRA 2011 Blengini & Carlo (2010) highlighted that it is difficult to carry out life cycle analysis towards 50 the end of life stage during design stage because information is still scanty. However, 51 construction sustainability could be achieved if considerable effort is put in design with future 52 benefits in mind (Ajayi et al, 2015). In this way, Design for Deconstruction (DfD) will increase 53 the cost-effectiveness of material recovery and reuse from the early design stages ( requires a holistic rethink of entire construction activities.…”