An Analytical Tool to Support Decision-Making in the Design Phase

The high consumption of energy and materials during their life cycle makes buildings among the most significant contributors to environmental impacts. Choosing sustainable materials and their reuse is crucial to positively decreasing their environmental impact. The design phase is essential throughout the lifecycle, where designers and customers are called to make informed decisions. Those are easier as more quantitative data are available. The present work presents the extension of a tool previously developed intended to introduce the topic of environmental sustainability in the design phase. It allows quantitatively assessing the goodness of reusing construction materials in terms of environmental avoided impact. The primary potentiality is represented by the possibility of executing sustainability assessment already in the early stages of building design when design choices significantly contribute to the global environmental impact of solutions. An application related to choosing and evaluating the use of second-life materials whose End of Life management is highly complex is shown. The case study is associated with the reuse of composite materials for indoor furniture. The results show how important it may be to re-employ materials because, from one side, it prevents the need for additional virgin resources and avoids the complex management of End of Life phase.