Mind the gap: Facilitating early design stage building life cycle assessment through a co-production approach
Despite the transition towards a circular economy (CE) being a significant element in achieving the decarbonisation of the built environment, a clear and common pathway to applying CE principles to building design is still lacking in both industry practice and academia. The integration of Building I...
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| Published in: | Journal of cleaner production Vol. 464 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier Ltd
20-07-2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Despite the transition towards a circular economy (CE) being a significant element in achieving the decarbonisation of the built environment, a clear and common pathway to applying CE principles to building design is still lacking in both industry practice and academia. The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has the potential to enable the identification of feasible pathways to increase circularity. This study aims to investigate its practical use to facilitate the application of circular economy principles at the early stage of building design via using LCA-based BIM plugins. Within this aim, the paper centres on a co-production approach and presents a gap analysis by identifying gaps in knowledge and implementation as well as addressing the pressing needs of the current practice in the UK. A series of semi-structured interviews with expert practitioners in the field were conducted for data collection, contributing to the following phases of the co-production by allowing for an in-depth investigation and reflection of the practice. The findings have revealed that: (a) there is still an insufficient level of contextual awareness and readiness in the implementation of CE principles in the built environment and LCA understanding and (b) the adoption of BIM at the early stages of building design is still limited in the current practice; BIM models with sufficient level of data details and quality to enable circularity assessment are rarely produced. Thus, the paper highlights the need for enabling mechanisms, including the introduction of legislative instruments, the involvement and commitment of the industry and key stakeholders, the support for training and skills improvement, and the establishment of effective communication and implementation process management frameworks. Future research agenda points to the need of formulation of a BIM protocol to enable integration of BIM and LCA to promote CE principles in the building design process.
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•Co-production is a promising approach to capture and respond to the industry needs.•Lack of seamless integration between BIM and LCA tools.•Insufficient understanding of how to apply CE principles in the building design.•Lack of systematic guidance and standardised process to implement BIM and LCA integration.•A tailored BIM protocol needed for applying LCA from a CE perspective in the building design. |
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| ISSN: | 0959-6526 1879-1786 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.142803 |