According to the National Energy Plan in Panama, the construction sector is one of the most prosperous and impactful sectors in the economy and it is expected to expand due to population growth by almost 300% by 2050. However, this sector must work on the transition towards sustainability and resilience in the face of climate change, since its growth implies a high consumption of resources and the contribution of greenhouse gases. The need to establish practices and strategies that embrace the dimension of sustainability and a circular economy is imminent. Currently, there is little guidance in the reference framework beyond certifications in planning, management and evaluation tools for its implementation. Different studies vary in the number of phases and considerations for projects. Therefore, the present work proposes the development of a unified road map, with defined phases, practices and indicators based on principles inspired by nature, such as biomimicry (Greek words: “bio” means life and “mimesis”, imitation), and focuses on a circular economy, validated by construction professionals, where strengths, opportunities, skills and threats are identified with a high level of acceptance. This contributes to strengthening the field of sustainable construction project management and a precedent for Panama.

Buildings must adapt and respond dynamically to their environment to reduce their energy loads and mitigate environmental impacts. Several approaches have addressed responsive behavior in buildings, such as adaptive and biomimetic envelopes. However, biomimetic approaches lack sustainability consideration, as conducted in biomimicry approaches. This study provides a comprehensive review of biomimicry approaches to develop responsive envelopes, aiming to understand the connection between material selection and manufacturing. This review of the last five years of building construction and architecture-related studies consisted of a two-phase search query, including keywords that answered three research questions relating to the biomimicry and biomimetic-based building envelopes and their materials and manufacturing and excluding other non-related industrial sectors. The first phase focused on understanding biomimicry approaches implemented in building envelopes by reviewing the mechanisms, species, functions, strategies, materials, and morphology. The second concerned the case studies relating to biomimicry approaches and envelopes. Results highlighted that most of the existing responsive envelope characteristics are achievable with complex materials requiring manufacturing processes with no environmentally friendly techniques. Additive and controlled subtractive manufacturing processes may improve sustainability, but there is still some challenge to developing materials that fully adapt to large-scale and sustainability needs, leaving a significant gap in this field.

Conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life or process. Such impacts along the product life or process are assessed via criteria to establish success when accounting for resource intake, waste, and emissions fluxes. In most cases, the assessment range may vary, defined by the designer’s and product’s aims, failing to evaluate all parts of the said cycle completely. This before is said to follow the “reducing unsustainability” paradigm (RUP), and changes are needed toward an assessment based on the “achieving sustainability” paradigm (ASP). Thus, this chapter embarks on the search for assessment approaches, assuming biomimicry principles can improve current LCIA tools. Comprehending the LCA criteria to assess product or process impacts is done via a literature review. Results showed that most assessment tools continue to be developed under the RUP, where three approaches present great potential for an ASP. A discussion over the difference in assessing two case studies in the built environment, net-zero-energy buildings, and sustainable construction projects under both paradigms is presented.

El sector de la construcción es uno de los más influyentes que impactan en la economía, y se prevé su expansión a causa del crecimiento de la población de casi 300% al 2050, según el Plan Energético Nacional. Sin embargo, este debe trabajar en la transición hacia la sostenibilidad y resiliencia frente al cambio climático, ya que su crecimiento implica un alto consumo de recursos y contribución de gases de efecto invernadero. La necesidad de establecer prácticas y estrategias que abarquen la dimensionalidad de la sostenibilidad (ambiente, sociedad y economía) y que se trabaje por una economía circular, son inminentes. Actualmente se cuenta con poca orientación en el marco de referencia más allá de certificaciones, así como en planificación, gestión y herramientas de evaluación para su implementación. En diferentes estudios se varía el número de fases y consideraciones para los proyectos. Por eso el trabajo de investigación propone el desarrollo de hoja de ruta unificada, con definición fases, prácticas e indicadores basados en principios inspirados en la naturaleza como la biomímesis (palabras griegas: “bio” significa vida y “mimesis”, imitación) y enfocados en una economía circular, la cual fue validada por profesionales de la construcción donde se identificaron las fortalezas, oportunidades, destrezas y amenazas contando con un alto nivel de aceptación. Esto contribuye a fortalecer el campo de la gestión de proyectos de construcción sostenible y dejar un precedente para Panamá con los enfoques innovadores de la biomímesis y economía circular.