Reuse in dynamic life cycle assessment at building scale: A Swiss case

Standardized life cyclestudy assessment (LCA) commonly treats buildings as static systems operating under fixed conditions, thereby neglecting the inherently dynamic nature of their long life cycles. In response, dynamic life cycle assessment (DLCA) has emerged as an approach that incorporates potential future changes by addressing the absence of temporal, spatial, and other context‐specific variables. Although various forms of dynamism have been identified within DLCA, their application in the context of material reuse remains largely underexplored. To bridge this gap, the present study introduces a DLCA framework specifically designed to account for the dynamics of material reuse. Emphasizing embodied and end‐of‐life (EoL) impacts, the approach incorporates temporal dynamics related to advancements in production technologies and EoL treatment. The methodology is applied to a Swiss case study featuring four comparative scenarios with different amounts of reuse. A comparison between the dynamic and standardized LCA approaches is conducted to assess the influence of incorporating temporal variability. The results highlight that reuse consistently outperforms new material use, even when accounting for expected advances in production and EoL treatment technologies. Furthermore, improvements in production processes exert a greater influence on environmental outcomes compared to advancements in EoL treatment. By capturing evolving contexts, the implementation of DLCA enables a more accurate assessment of reuse‐related environmental benefits, thereby supporting informed policy‐making and promoting resilient, sustainable building practices.