Advanced Circular Design, a Life Cycle Approach: Methods and Tools for an Eco-Innovative Life Cycle Approach for Buildings Energy and Resource Optimization

Abstract

The built environment with its operational phase, its production chain, and its maintenance, is responsible for over a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, the validation of these data positions the construction sector as the largest responsibility for producing long-term greenhouse gas emissions. The evolutionary scenarios developed by the IPCC see five possible conditions, based on different levels of future emissions, which will result in a warming of 1.5° or more by 2040, thus exceeding the limit threshold for maintaining biodiversity. The study conducted retracing the advancement proposed in Regenerative Design, proposes a comparison of perspective in the definition of the fundamental principles of regenerative design, and underlines the importance of considering the aspects concerning the sustainability of buildings already in the early design phase, intercepting in the responses offered by alternatives the need to find solutions that in the medium-term make the transition towards a carbon-free system for the construction industry, increasing the well-being of those who use the goods produced and minimize the need for natural resources such as use soil, biodiversity, water, air, and energy.