Product Resource and Climate Footprint Analysis during Architectural Design in BIM

Abstract

Significant global economic growth in the building sector is recently being noticed according to cities developments. Buildings and construction materials dominate the increasing demand for natural resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and landfill space. This article assesses the application of the product footprints for material, energy, and water as well as the product climate footprint for different design alternatives of building elements. The alternatives include different designs of foundations, exterior walls, and ceilings using recycled aggregates for concrete production. The approach is assessed cradle-to-gate within the life cycle assessment (LCA) boundaries for building elements and construction materials using a product resource and climate footprint analysis. The material footprint is determined by the indicators Raw Material Input (RMI) and Total Material Requirement (TMR), and the energy footprint by the Cumulated Energy Demand (CED). The water footprint is defined using the Available Water Remaining (AWARE) method. The climate footprint is quantified by the indicator Global Warming Impact (GWI) using Global Warming Potential (GWP) values from the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. The LCA calculation is integrated into a building information modeling (BIM) tool to make changes in footprint results visible to planners, architects, and civil engineers. Results show that material footprint could be significantly decreased when the recycled aggregates are considered to produce waterproof concrete of foundation and underground exterior walls.