The Potential of Digitalization for Sustainability: A Building Process Perspective

Abstract

There is a potential of digitalization in improving sustainability throughout the entire building process. One way to address this potential is through BIM-LCA integration. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method for analyzing the environmental impact of buildings. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a methodology that can help to account for LCA during the Building Process. Current industry practice and research show that there are mainly two approaches for BIM-LCA integration. Either the evaluation is done in a simplified way at the beginning of the building process, or it is accounted for at the end when the needed information is available, but it is too late for having an impact on decision-making. There is, therefore, a lack of methods and tools for implementing BIM-LCA integration over the entire building process. Based on this, the objectives of this study are to analyze the potential of integration of LCA methodology in BIM practice in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) industry and to define a methodology for BIM-LCA integration in the Swiss context. For the achievement of the objectives, a parametric tool for BIM-LCA evaluation is created and tested on a case study. The case study is provided by the Swiss construction company Implenia AG. Through the application of the parametric tool on the case study, it is shown that the entire building process (SIA 112, 2001) can be evaluated for its environmental impact continuously in each Building Phase (SIA 112, 2001) while applying an existing code structure (crb, 2012). In that way, the re-work that characterizes most of the current LCA practices is minimized and decision-making metrics, both at Element (SIA, 2018) and Building (MINERGIE, 2014) Levels, are provided.