Simplification in life cycle assessment of single-family houses: A review of recent developments

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is globally recognized as one of the most complete methods for environmental assessment of buildings. Literature assumes that its applications in the building sector are prejudiced regarding complexity and difficulty. However, simplification is necessary, since it can facilitate LCA application in buildings. Moreover, growing interest on reducing environmental impact in the building sector, as well as the relevance of single-family houses on CO2 emissions have become key points on the wide spread of LCA.Therefore, this paper presents a research study about simplification in LCA recent studies applied to singlefamily houses. The review focuses on 20 cases that were analyzed according to ISO 14040, ISO 14044, EN 15978, and EN 15804 standards. The main objective was to identify the simplification strategies assumed in each paper, to clarify and to help to promote further developments on LCA. This paper examines system boundary definition, data sources, life cycle phases included, and environmental impact indicator calculated in case studies. Results show the variety of simplifications identified. They affect physical model definition, life cycle scenario definition and communication of results. In most cases, the functional unit was the complete building, the life cycle scenario definition included production, use and demolition phases, and the most considered environmental impact indicator was GWP. Finally, new challenges and recommendations were defined in order to establish common criteria to develop simplification strategies that allow results comparability in LCA of single-family houses.

Critical review of bim-based LCA method to buildings

“…The LCA application within the building sector, as a strategy to reduce environmental impacts and the energy consumption of the building sector, has been underlined in several review papers [11,13,43,[45][46][47].…”

“…The literature recognizes the advantages of BIM-LCA integration [13,23,33,49,[56][57][58][59]. Kreiner et al [23], who developed a methodology for building environmental assessment based on LCA, acknowledged the integration of LCA in BIM as a way of improving sustainability performance of buildings.…”

“…Kreiner et al [23], who developed a methodology for building environmental assessment based on LCA, acknowledged the integration of LCA in BIM as a way of improving sustainability performance of buildings. Soust-Verdaguer et al [13] demonstrated the growing use of BIM in LCA of single-family houses.…”

“…Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered as a complete method to assess the sustainability of a building over its life cycle; and has growing importance in the scientific community [12]. Several studies underline the importance of improving and simplifying LCA application to buildings [13][14][15][16]. Thus, it is recognized that the integration of BIM (Building Information Modeling) -LCA can reduce and optimize LCA application [13].…”

“…Several studies underline the importance of improving and simplifying LCA application to buildings [13][14][15][16]. Thus, it is recognized that the integration of BIM (Building Information Modeling) -LCA can reduce and optimize LCA application [13].…”