IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i9p3748-d354281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrated BIM-Based LCA for the Entire Building Process Using an Existing Structure for Cost Estimation in the Swiss Context

Author

Listed:
  • Anita Naneva

    (Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zurich, Stefano Franscini Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
    Project Excellence and Services (PES) Global—Building Information Modelling (BIM), Implenia Schweiz AG, Industriestrasse 24, 8305 Dietlikon, Switzerland)

  • Marcella Bonanomi

    (Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zurich, Stefano Franscini Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Alexander Hollberg

    (Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zurich, Stefano Franscini Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
    Sustainable Building Group, Division of Building Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden)

  • Guillaume Habert

    (Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zurich, Stefano Franscini Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Daniel Hall

    (Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zurich, Stefano Franscini Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland)

Abstract

The building sector has a significant potential to reduce the material resource demand needed for construction and therefore, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Digitalization can help to make use of this potential and improve sustainability throughout the entire building’s life cycle. One way to address this potential is through the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into the building process by employing Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM can reduce the effort needed to carry out an LCA, and therefore, facilitate the integration into the building process. A review of current industry practice and scientific literature shows that companies are lacking the incentive to apply LCA. If applied, there are two main approaches. Either the LCA is performed in a simplified way at the beginning of the building process using imprecise techniques, or it is done at the very end when all the needed information is available, but it is too late for decision-making. One reason for this is the lack of methods, workflows and tools to implement BIM-LCA integration over the whole building development. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop an integrated BIM-LCA method for the entire building process by relating it to an established workflow. To avoid an additional effort for practitioners, an existing structure for cost estimation in the Swiss context is used. The established method is implemented in a tool and used in a case study in Switzerland to test the approach. The results of this study show that LCA can be performed continuously in each building phase over the entire building process using existing Building Information Modeling (BIM) techniques for cost estimation. The main benefit of this approach is that it simplifies the application of LCA in the building process and therefore gives incentives for companies to apply it. Moreover, the re-work caused by the need for re-entering data and the usage of many different software tools that characterize most of the current LCA practices is minimized. Furthermore, decision-making, both at the element and building levels, is supported.

Suggested Citation

  • Anita Naneva & Marcella Bonanomi & Alexander Hollberg & Guillaume Habert & Daniel Hall, 2020. "Integrated BIM-Based LCA for the Entire Building Process Using an Existing Structure for Cost Estimation in the Swiss Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3748-:d:354281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3748/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3748/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuan Qi & Siwei Chang & Yingbo Ji & Kai Qi, 2018. "BIM-Based Incremental Cost Analysis Method of Prefabricated Buildings in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Eleftheriadis, Stathis & Mumovic, Dejan & Greening, Paul, 2017. "Life cycle energy efficiency in building structures: A review of current developments and future outlooks based on BIM capabilities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 811-825.
    3. Sungwoo Lee & Sungho Tae & Seungjun Roh & Taehyung Kim, 2015. "Green Template for Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings Based on Building Information Modeling: Focus on Embodied Environmental Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sebastian Theißen & Jannick Höper & Jan Drzymalla & Reinhard Wimmer & Stanimira Markova & Anica Meins-Becker & Michaela Lambertz, 2020. "Using Open BIM and IFC to Enable a Comprehensive Consideration of Building Services within a Whole-Building LCA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-25, July.
    2. Steffen Kiemel & Chantal Rietdorf & Maximilian Schutzbach & Robert Miehe, 2022. "How to Simplify Life Cycle Assessment for Industrial Applications—A Comprehensive Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-26, November.
    3. José Pedro Carvalho & Ismael Alecrim & Luís Bragança & Ricardo Mateus, 2020. "Integrating BIM-Based LCA and Building Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Roberto Giordano & Federica Gallina & Benedetta Quaglio, 2021. "Analysis and Assessment of the Building Life Cycle. Indicators and Tools for the Early Design Stage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Tiziano Dalla Mora & Erika Bolzonello & Carmine Cavalliere & Fabio Peron, 2020. "Key Parameters Featuring BIM-LCA Integration in Buildings: A Practical Review of the Current Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-33, September.
    6. José Pedro Carvalho & Fernanda Schmitd Villaschi & Luís Bragança, 2021. "Assessing Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Impacts of Building Construction Solutions with BIM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-23, August.
    7. Kai Xue & Md. Uzzal Hossain & Meng Liu & Mingjun Ma & Yizhi Zhang & Mengqiang Hu & XiaoYi Chen & Guangyu Cao, 2021. "BIM Integrated LCA for Promoting Circular Economy towards Sustainable Construction: An Analytical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Aminu Darda’u Rafindadi & Nasir Shafiq & Idris Othman, 2022. "A Conceptual Framework for BIM Process Flow to Mitigate the Causes of Fall-Related Accidents at the Design Stage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-37, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kai Xue & Md. Uzzal Hossain & Meng Liu & Mingjun Ma & Yizhi Zhang & Mengqiang Hu & XiaoYi Chen & Guangyu Cao, 2021. "BIM Integrated LCA for Promoting Circular Economy towards Sustainable Construction: An Analytical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Tiziano Dalla Mora & Erika Bolzonello & Carmine Cavalliere & Fabio Peron, 2020. "Key Parameters Featuring BIM-LCA Integration in Buildings: A Practical Review of the Current Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-33, September.
    3. Ingrid Bertin & Romain Mesnil & Jean-Marc Jaeger & Adélaïde Feraille & Robert Le Roy, 2020. "A BIM-Based Framework and Databank for Reusing Load-Bearing Structural Elements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Zezhou Wu & Changhong Chen & Yuzhu Cai & Chen Lu & Hao Wang & Tao Yu, 2019. "BIM-Based Visualization Research in the Construction Industry: A Network Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-13, September.
    5. Ahmad Jrade & Farnaz Jalaei & Jieying Jane Zhang & Saeed Jalilzadeh Eirdmousa & Farzad Jalaei, 2023. "Potential Integration of Bridge Information Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing Tools for Infrastructure Projects within Construction 4.0: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-25, October.
    6. Yasser Yahya Al-Ashmori & Idris Othman & Al-Hussein M. H. Al-Aidrous, 2022. "“Values, Challenges, and Critical Success Factors” of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Malaysia: Experts Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    7. José Pedro Carvalho & Fernanda Schmitd Villaschi & Luís Bragança, 2021. "Assessing Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Impacts of Building Construction Solutions with BIM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-23, August.
    8. Alessandro D’Amico & Giacomo Bergonzoni & Agnese Pini & Edoardo Currà, 2020. "BIM for Healthy Buildings: An Integrated Approach of Architectural Design based on IAQ Prediction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-31, December.
    9. López-Guerrero, Rafael E. & Vera, Sergio & Carpio, Manuel, 2022. "A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the sustainability of industrialised building systems: A bibliographic review and analysis of case studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Jozef Mitterpach & Emília Hroncová & Juraj Ladomerský & Jozef Štefko, 2016. "Quantification of Improvement in Environmental Quality for Old Residential Buildings Using Life Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Tao Zhang & Qi Ding & Qinian Hu & Bin Liu & Weijun Gao & Dian Zhou & Hiroatsu Fukuda, 2020. "Towards Rural Revitalization Strategy for Housing in Gully Regions of the Loess Plateau: Environmental Considerations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-27, June.
    12. Min Ho Shin & Hye Kyung Lee & Hwan Yong Kim, 2018. "Benefit–Cost Analysis of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in a Railway Site," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-10, November.
    13. Clyde Zhengdao Li & Yiqian Deng & Yingyi Ya & Vivian W. Y. Tam & Chen Lu, 2023. "Applications of Information Technology in Building Carbon Flow," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-23, December.
    14. Jungsik Choi & Sejin Lee, 2023. "A Suggestion of the Alternatives Evaluation Method through IFC-Based Building Energy Performance Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, January.
    15. Cellura, Maurizio & Guarino, Francesco & Longo, Sonia & Mistretta, Marina, 2017. "Modeling the energy and environmental life cycle of buildings: A co-simulation approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 733-742.
    16. Lavinia Chiara Tagliabue & Fulvio Re Cecconi & Sebastiano Maltese & Stefano Rinaldi & Angelo Luigi Camillo Ciribini & Alessandra Flammini, 2021. "Leveraging Digital Twin for Sustainability Assessment of an Educational Building," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Dongchen Han & Mohsen Kalantari & Abbas Rajabifard, 2021. "Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Australia: A Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-22, November.
    18. Chin-Wen Liao & Jen-Hui Lin & Tzu-Wen Chen, 2022. "Research on a Framework for Sustainable Campus Eco-Architecture Selection: Taking a Taiwan High School as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, May.
    19. Seongjun Kim & Sung-Ah Kim, 2020. "Framework for Designing Sustainable Structures through Steel Beam Reuse," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-20, November.
    20. Yanqiu Cui & Simeng Li & Chunlu Liu & Ninghan Sun, 2020. "Creation and Diversified Applications of Plane Module Libraries for Prefabricated Houses Based on BIM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3748-:d:354281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.