Search

Urban building energy models (UBEMs), developed to understand the energy performance of building stocks of a region, can aid in key decisions related to energy policy and climate change solutions. However, creating a city-scale UBEM is challenging due to the requirements of diverse geometric and non-geometric datasets. Thus, we aimed to further elucidate the process of creating a UBEM with disparate and scarce data based on a bottom-up, physics-based approach. We focused on three typically overlooked but functionally important commercial building stocks, which are sales and shopping, healthcare facilities, and food sales and services, in the region of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We harvested relevant local building information and employed photogrammetry and image processing. We created archetypes for key building types, designed 3D buildings with SketchUp, and performed an energy analysis using EnergyPlus. The average annual simulated energy use intensities (EUIs) were 528 kWh/m2, 822 kWh/m2, and 2894 kWh/m2 for sales and shopping, healthcare facilities, and food sales and services, respectively. In addition to variations found in the simulated energy use pattern among the stocks, considerable variations were observed within buildings of the same stock. About 9% and 11% errors were observed for sales and shopping and healthcare facilities when validating the simulated results with the actual data. The suggested energy conservation measures could reduce the annual EUI by 10–26% depending on the building use type. The UBEM results can assist in finding energy-efficient retrofit solutions with respect to the energy and carbon reduction goal for commercial building stocks at the city scale. The limitations highlighted may be considered for higher accuracy, and the UBEM has a high potential to integrate with urban climate and energy models, circular economy, and life cycle assessment for sustainable urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Critically considered waste materials generated at different stages of building. • Influence of waste materials on building environmental impacts was comprehensively evaluated. • About 20% GHGs emission was underestimated for avoiding these in building assessment. • Adopting resource recovery principle can lead to 37% GHGs reduction from building. Abstract Buildings are responsible for a significant natural resources diminution and emissions to the environment. Thus, the building industry has become a global target for reducing environmental impacts and curbing resource depletion. Concerning the rapidly growth of buildings, life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used for assessing and mitigating the associated environmental impacts from material selection to the whole building systems. However, many of the previous studies have focused on the impacts assessment from buildings within a restricted system boundary, especially lack of consideration of several critical factors when assessing the whole building, such as wastage level of raw materials during building construction and the disposal impacts, renovation and replacement of components of building and their treatment, and waste treatments during building demolition. As the industry is shifting from linear to circular, the consideration of those factors are essential for ensuring waste reduction, resources recovery and resource-efficient construction, not to mention about increasing the accuracy of such assessment. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess the environmental impacts of the mentioned aspects at different life cycles of building by LCA. The results were then critically discussed after identifying the contribution of waste materials at different stages of building to the total impacts. The potential sustainable strategies for waste treatments during the construction, operation and end-of-life stages of building were then highlighted to help lay important foundation for adopting circular economy principle in the building industry and establishing benchmark for future reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A rapid development of building environmental research from the globe is witnessed in recent years to deal with the environmental issues, especially in terms of energy consumption and carbon emissions, due to the substantial environmental burdens associated with the building industry. Thus, numerous scientific efforts have been devoted to buildings through environmental assessment like a life cycle assessment (LCA) and a methodological framework development. Concerning the rapid growth of buildings, LCA is increasingly used for assessing and mitigating the associated environmental impacts from material selection to the whole building systems. This study aims to comprehensively review the LCA implication on buildings by discussing the contemporary issues related to the development of this research field. The study considers a wide range of literature including case studies, reviews and surveys, and these articles are critically examined according to the predefined criteria developed. An in-depth analysis is also conducted on selected studies to unveil the criticality of the assessments and results under different considerations. In addition to demonstrating the research gaps for comprehensive assessment of buildings, the adoption of a circular economy (CE) concept is highlighted by providing a comprehensive framework. The findings show that resource recovery and resource-efficient building construction are seldom considered in prevailing studies. As a result, the framework proposed in this paper should help support a paradigm shift towards a comprehensive research for increasing the accuracy and practicability by introducing the CE principle to the building industry for enhancing its sustainability performance. Highlights • Literature related to building-environmental research was critically analyzed. • LCA implication on buildings was comprehensively reviewed by discussing the contemporary issues. • Selected papers were critically analyzed to unveil the research trends and practices. • Knowledge gaps for comprehensive assessment of buildings under the CE principle are identified. • Comprehensive framework based on the CE principle was proposed for comprehensiveness building LCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable construction is widely regarded as one of the best decisions to reduce the environmental impact of the buildings. Numerous scientific efforts have been devoted to promoting sustainability by adopting different techniques such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and building information modeling (BIM). The recent circular economy (CE) agenda is prioritizing in different sectors including construction due to increasing concern on the materials efficiency and resources consumption. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the implications, considerations, contributions and challenges of BIM integrated LCA and the CE adoption in the industry by critically analyzing the recent literature. A scientometric analysis was applied to the selected studies to show the knowledge among BIM, LCA and CE relationships. With a comprehensive analysis of major challenges and opportunities of LCA and BIM for construction sustainability, key drivers for sustainable building design were identified and analyzed. A prospective integrated framework for CE adoption into BIM-based LCA of buildings and an evaluation method are proposed by analyzing the contemporary issues. It is believed that the analyzed critical issues, identified future research direction and proposed frameworks and this methodology should contribute to effective implementation of CE into the building for promoting sustainable construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy (CE) concept has received increasing attention among different parties on various levels recently. Due to the concern on significant resources consumption in the construction industry without concerning the physical limit resources, a paradigm shift of linear economy to CE model is inevitable for conserving the resources and promoting the efficient use of resources. Adopting CE into the construction industry can promote the successful transition to sustainable construction. Although early stage of development in the construction industry, the scientific contribution of CE agenda in the construction industry is significantly increasing. Therefore, this review aimed to identity the implications, considerations, contributions and challenges of CE in the construction industry by systematically analyzing the recent literature. In addition to existing trends and considerations, this study highlighted the numerous challenges under design, materials selection, supply chain, business model, uncertainty and risk, collaborations among actions, knowledge of understanding, relevant policy, integration of urban metabolism, and methodology for CE evaluation. The study found that CE implementation into the case-specific building with full scale evaluation is yet to be conducted, and a comprehensive CE integration and methodology framework is yet to be developed. A prospective integrated framework for CE adoption and evaluation method is proposed by analyzing the contemporary issues. It is believed that the analyzed critical issues for CE adoption, identified future research direction, and proposed frameworks and methodology should help further development of CE research and contribution to effective implementation of CE into the industry for promoting sustainable construction. • Recent development of CE research agenda in the construction industry is critically analyzed. • Implications, considerations, and challenges of CE in the industry are summarized. • Future research directions are identified for comprehensive CE adoption and evaluation. • Proposed an integrated holistic framework for CE adoption and its evaluation methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]