See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/269192727

Sustainable Construction Approach through Integration of LCA and BIM Tools

Conference Paper · June 2014

DOI: 10.1061/9780784413616.036

CITATIONS READS

84 1,116

2 authors, including:

Joaquin Diaz
Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen
33 PUBLICATIONS 333 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Joaquin Diaz on 15 July 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Sustainable construction approach through integration of LCA and BIM tools
Joaquín Díaz1 and Laura Álvarez Antón1
1
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Technische Hochschule
Mittelhessen. Wiesenstrasse 14, 35390 Giessen, Germany; email:
[email protected] ; [email protected]

ABSTRACT
The construction industry is turning more and more towards sustainability. To
achieve sustainability, a balance between environmental, economic and social
aspects has to be reached. Therefore these criteria have to be taken into account
during the building design phases. LCA is a suitable tool for assessing a building’s
environmental performance. Nevertheless, it has some issues that need to be resolved
for its integration in the design process and use as an assessing design tool. By
integrating LCA with other tools, such as BIM, a more holistic approach to
sustainable construction could be achieved. Thus already existing tools can create
synergies for attaining higher efficiency and sustainable construction. Furthermore,
these tools should be implemented from the early project phases onwards, since the
capacity to influence the project is greater in these phases. Finally, two different
approaches for integrating LCA and BIM are presented in order to highlight future
research fields.
Keywords: Building Information Modeling (BIM), Construction Industry,
Design Phase, Integration, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Sustainability.

INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is facing new challenges. The society demands new
infrastructure, reduction in the consumption of energy and resources, and
implementation of sustainable construction. There is a need for more cost reduction,
quality increase and focus on services, thereby changing the focus of the industry
from a cost-driven philosophy into a value-driven one (Sjøgren, 2011).
Due to current concerns about sustainability and environmental impacts of the
construction industry, different methods are being introduced to assess
environmental performance. One of the tools developed for this purpose is Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is currently being fostered as a decision-making
support tool for reducing a building’s impacts and achieving sustainable design
(American Institute of Architects, 2010).
LCA implementation could really contribute to the achievement of
sustainability along the project’s life cycle (Ortiz et al., 2009). It is a well-known fact
that sustainability has three pillars (economic, social and environmental aspects).
LCA methodology is environmentally oriented; therefore it should be combined with
other tools for achieving an overall sustainable project (ISO, 2006).
 SUSTAINABILITY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. BUILDING’S
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ASSESSMENT (LCA)
The development of LCA has been slower in the construction industry than in
other sectors, despite the fact that it was first implemented in 1990 and is an
important tool for achieving sustainability in the building process (Khasreen et al.,
2009). While the instructions given in the various LCA standards fit well to
industrialized processes, they do not fit so well when dealing with buildings due to a
number of special features. The long life cycle of a building and the fact that each
product is unique greatly influence the implementation of LCA in this field.
Therefore, some special considerations have to be taken into account when applying
LCA guidelines to buildings (Arena & De Rosa, 2003), since such guidelines do not
create a specific methodology for performing the assessment, but only constitute
guidelines and requirements (The World Bank Group, 2012).
As a starting point, in order to obtain the greatest benefit from LCA
performance, the following question should be answered: When must LCA be
implemented so as to achieve the most efficient results for the project? To find the
answer to this question, it is necessary to identify those phases which have the
highest potential for influencing the project.
The design phase, for example, has a high potential for adding value to the
project. At this point, the project is really flexible. In the construction phase, on the
other hand, the project has already lost flexibility and only small changes can be
made. The capacity to influence the project becomes smaller as the project
progresses. The initial phases have great potential for implementing changes,
studying different alternatives, improving performance, and reducing costs (Burke,
2001). Therefore, the design phase should be considered as the first stage for
achieving sustainability, as has been accepted by the British government: “Good
design is synonymous with sustainable construction” (HM Government, 2008).
From this it follows that the implementation of LCA as a decision-making
tool in the early phases contributes in a more efficient way to sustainable project
development.

Main advantages of LCA as a decision-making tool

As previously mentioned, LCA has a high potential for assessing decision-
making in the early project phases. It can guide material selection, help to compare
alternatives, support the planning of the procedure for residues management, aid the
development of the construction plan, etc. It also highlights the main opportunities
for improving environmental performance along the whole life cycle. LCA
methodology makes it possible to compare the environmental performance of
different buildings and to learn from this experience (ENSLIC, 2007). Furthermore, a
wide variety of environmental aspects can be analyzed in addition to energy
consumption (Buyle et al., 2012).
 LCA facilitates cost minimization, since it reduces environmental costs and
contributes to a reduction in energy and resources consumption (ENSLIC, 2007).
It also contributes to an increase in social awareness concerning
environmental impacts. Currently, the costs of environmental impacts are not
included in the final budgets; thus the chance to show the environmental costs and
effects of a specific construction helps to achieve sustainability. The society must be
conscious of the real costs that environmental impacts have (Buyle et al., 2012).

Main limitations of LCA

Despite the clear advantages of LCA for the construction industry, it also has
some inherent limitations. There is still a need for development and improvement,
and special care should be taken when analyzing results (Buyle et al., 2012).
Before LCA can be applied, some particular requirements have to be fulfilled.
An expertise is needed for its execution and specific software for its performance.
Furthermore, a complete database must be available, since the quality of the analysis
depends on the quality of the data. In addition, LCA could be a very time-consuming
task (The World Bank Group, 2012).
Data availability can be highlighted as one of the main difficulties involved in
developing an LCA assessment. Sometimes there are simply not enough data or the
available data are of limited value because they are not up to date or do not fit the
standard requirements (Jensen et al., 1997). All this leads to assumptions, which
increases the inaccuracy of the assessment (American Institute of Architects, 2010).
There is a lack of standardization and fixed methodology with regard to LCA
performance (American Institute of Architects, 2010). The valid ISO standards
concerning LCA provide a general framework, but do not give a unique methodology
(ISO, 2006).
The building itself is made up of a wide variety of products, each with its own
characteristics, life span and varying relevance concerning environmental impacts.
Moreover, there is uncertainty concerning the building’s future use, maintenance or
refurbishment. All these reasons make it very difficult to assess the whole building as
a single product (Tritthart et al., 2010). Different assumptions have to be made
concerning the different stages of the life cycle, thus increasing the uncertainty of the
assessment (Buyle et al., 2012).
Another problem is the misuse of LCA due to its implementation in the late
phases of the project. In Europe many LCAs are developed for certification purposes
instead of being used in the early design phases as a decision-making tool (Tritthart
et al., 2010). For the implementation of LCA as a decision-making support tool a
large amount of data is required during the early project phases. However, fewer
project data are available in these phases. Currently, the required data are collected
from the 2D drawings and have to be entered manually in the LCA software, but this
process is laborious, time-consuming and cost-intensive. Hence LCA assessments are
frequently undertaken during the late project phases or when the building is already
finished. This situation could be improved if LCA was combined with BIM, since the
data required for performing an LCA during the design phase could be obtained
directly from the BIM software (Eastman et al., 2011).
All the above mentioned limitations relate to the complexity and costs of the
procedure, a lack of accuracy and the difficulty of data access and interpretation
(ENSLIC, 2007). Further development is needed if LCA is to be implemented
effectively as a decision-making tool. LCA methodology has several drawbacks
which could be solved by integrating it with BIM.

APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION: INTEGRATION

OF LCA AND BIM
Sustainability in the construction industry depends on achieving the lowest
possible environmental impact while encouraging social and economic development.
Currently, the industry is inefficient due to a lack of cooperation and subsequent
waste of resources. Therefore some form of change is needed (Bundesministerium
für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung, 2013).
Integrated design should be seen as a key factor in achieving sustainability,
since it focuses efforts in the early design phases (McGraw Hill Construction, 2010),
which means a higher capacity for influencing the project and adding value.
The construction industry is aiming to use the knowledge and technology
available to achieve sustainability in all its activities (Chong et al., 2009). Currently,
the industry has powerful tools such as BIM and LCA, which hold great potential for
sustainable construction.
BIM can be highlighted as an important contributor to sustainability, since it
supports the implementation of integrated design. It has a great capacity for
information management and supports collaboration of the different stakeholders
involved in the project from the early design phases onwards. This provides an
overview of the project, and the construction industry can perform more effectively
(McGraw Hill Construction, 2010).
Moreover, by eliminating the need to reenter the same data, the use of BIM
helps to avoid unnecessary waste of time and resources caused by inefficient data
management. It has been estimated that, at present, in the construction industry, the
same data may be entered up to seven times (Sjøgren, 2011). Indeed, manual reentry
of the project data into the LCA tool is one of the main drawbacks that have to be
overcome (Eastman et al., 2011). By successfully integrating LCA and BIM, these
issues could be resolved, since the LCA tool could directly access the data of the
BIM model.
BIM can be used to enhance sustainability with positive impacts on the
respective three pillars. BIM models contain information on the cost of the project
and facilitate cost reduction in sustainable design, since they provide the necessary
information and analyze it. BIM implementation also improves a project’s efficiency
and increases coordination, so that any waste of energy and materials is reduced.
With regard to the social dimension, the analysis and simulation of different
parameters would be really complicated if BIM-based tools were not used due to the
hard task of entering data. Thanks to BIM implementation, complex analysis, such as
daylight, can be performed in order to create better working or living conditions.
Nevertheless, its capacity for improving environmental performance could be
enhanced through integration with LCA tools.
BIM is a tool with great potential for achieving sustainable design, but
currently this potential is still underused. One of the main reasons for this is the lack
of interoperability (Nisbet & Dinesen, 2010). BIM’s potential for sustainability could
be enhanced by creating synergies with other existing tools, such as LCA.

Figure 1. Comparison between non-integrated and integrated approach to

sustainability

Different approaches to BIM and LCA integration in decision-making

Two different approaches for integrating BIM and LCA will be presented.
On the one hand, automatic extraction of the building data directly from the
BIM model supports the performance of LCA. The results of the assessment can be
used for comparing alternatives in the early design phases. Some of the main
characteristics of an efficient decision-making tool are given in the following.
It is important to avoid manual data reentry. The data should be taken directly
from the BIM model. Moreover, the integrated tool has to be easy to use for non-
experts. If the tool is to be implemented in the early design stages by engineers and
architects, its use should be easy enough to encourage them to integrate it into their
normal skill set.
Real-time assessment is also desirable. One of the main problems of
conventional LCA tools is that they are very time-consuming. If the integrated tool is
to be used for decision-making, the assessment procedure must be quick. It has to
provide a real-time assessment and facilitate the evaluation of different alternatives
within the framework of the integrated design process. Moreover, there should be a
comparison between different alternatives for selecting the solution with the best
performance.
It must be possible to assess the whole building. At the same time, the
integrated tool should allow the user to select particular elements to be evaluated for
materials selection or solution definition purposes. Moreover, users need to have the
possibility of selecting different environmental indicators to be calculated for
adapting the assessment to the needs of the client or designer.
There ought to be link between the information in the BIM model and that in
the LCA databases. As a first approach, some of the information on the main
environmental parameters could be included among the features of the BIM objects.
Therefore, if this information is presented together with the remaining features of the
BIM objects (e.g. length, weight), the designer will be able to consider
environmental criteria when selecting materials. Indeed, relating information could
be seen as the first step towards achieving a link between BIM and LCA.

Figure 2. Environmental information included in the BIM model

Moreover, a list of the different components of the BIM model and their
properties (including environmental information) can be generated in order to
estimate the LCA of the whole building. This assessment will be material-oriented
due to the fact that it is based on combining information on the different materials
and components, instead of considering the whole construction process. It is less
accurate and complete than the assessment of the building as a whole, but it could be
used as an easier first approach for including environmental criteria during the
decision-making process in the early design phases.

CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this research is to highlight the importance of the early design
phases and the integration of LCA and BIM with the purpose of achieving an
assessment that covers the three main pillars of sustainability.
There needs to be a link between BIM models and LCA information.
Currently, the costs of the proposed design can be estimated in the early design
phases. This should likewise be possible with regard to the environmental
performance of the building.
 Figure 3. Comparison between current procedure and integration of
BIM and LCA
Of the two approaches presented here for integrating BIM and LCA, the first
one, which is based on the assessment of the whole building along its life cycle, is
more accurate, but it has not yet been completely achieved. The second approach,
which is based on including LCA information in the BIM objects, could be used as
an initial step towards achieving integration. At the same time, it may also be the first
measure towards including environmental information in the early design phases.

REFERENCES
American Institute of Architects (2010). “AIA Guide to Building Life Cycle
Assessment in Practice”.American Institute of Architects. Washington DC.
Arena, A. P., & De Rosa, C. (2003). “Life cycle assessment of energy and
environmental implications of the implementation of conservation
technologies in school buildings in Mendoza – Argentina”. Building and
Environment, 38 (2), 359 - 368.
Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung (2013). “Mögliche
Ursachen für Kosten- und Terminüberschreitungen bei der Realisierung von
Großprojekten.”http://www.bmvi.de//SharedDocs/DE/Artikel/UI/reformkom
mission-bau-von-grossprojekten.html?nn=38976>(June 19, 2013).
Burke, R. (2001). Project Management. Planning and Control Techniques (Third
ed.). John Wiley & Sons LTD. Chichester, 3.5 – 3.6.
Buyle, M., Braet, J., & Audenaert, A. (2012). “LCA in the construction industry: a
review”. International Journal of Energy and Environment, 6(4), 397 - 405.
Chong, W. K., Kumar, S., Hass, C., Beheiry, S., Coplen, L., & Oey, M. (2009).
“Understanding and Interpreting Baseline Perceptions of Sustainability in
 Construction among Civil Engineers in the United States”. Journal of
management in engineering, 25 (3) 143-154.
Eastman, C., Teicholz, P., Sacks, R., & Liston, K. (2011). BIM Handbook. A Guide
to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers,
Engineers, and Contractors (Second ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New
Jersey, 9.8.12.
ENSLIC (2007). “Energy Saving through Promotion of Life Cycle Assessment in
Buildings.” http://circe.cps.unizar.es/enslic/texto/proj.html>(July 5, 2013).
HM Governmnet (2008). Strategy for sustainable construction. Department for
Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. London.
ISO (2006). “Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Principles and
framework” ISO 14040:2006.
http://www.iso.org/iso/catogue_detail.htm?csnumber=37456 (Jun. 24, 2013)
Jensen, A. A., Hoffman, L., Møller, B. T., & Schmidt, A. (1997). Life Cycle
Assessment. A guide to approaches, experiences and information sources.
European Environmental Agency.
Khasreen, M. M., Banfill, P. F., & Menzies, G. F. (2009). “Life-Cycle Assessment
and the Environmental Impact of Buildings: A Review.” Sustainability, 1(3),
674 - 701.
McGraw Hill Construction (2010). SmartMarket Report. Green BIM. McGraw-Hill
Construction. Bedford.
Nisbet, N. & Dinesen, B. (2010). Constructing the Business Case. Building
information modelling. British Standards Institution. London
Ortiz, O., Catells, F., & Sonnemann, G. (2009). “Sustainability in the construction
industry: A review of recent developments based on LCA.” Construction and
Building Materials, 23(1), 28-29.
Sjøgren, J. (2011). “A Norwegian IFC story and lessons learned.” buildingSMART in
Norway, http://www.buildingsmart.no/article87.html>(June 20, 2013).
The World Bank Group (2012). Getting to Green. A Sourcebook of Pollution
Management Policy Tools for Growth and Competitiveness. The International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Washington.
Tritthart, W. et al., (2010). LoRe-LCA State of the art report - Use of Life cycle
assessment Methods and tools. LoRE-LCA-WP2-D2-IFZ report.doc.

View publication stats