AMPLIFY  VOL. 37, NO. 11
  

The construction industry is a significant contributor to climate change through emissions and extensive material usage due to its reliance on manual processes and physical materials.¹ However, digital innovations such as building information modeling (BIM), the Internet of Things (IoT), and AI are revolutionizing the way construction projects are planned, designed, constructed, and operated.² In the face of an accelerated climate crisis, these innovations present a unique opportunity to go beyond efficiency gains to tackle climate change.

Building on prior research on digital sustainability, industry experience, and empirical illustrations, this article explores how digital innovation can be harnessed to “build” a more sustainable construction industry.^3,4

Using a digital-first and digitally enabled strategy, firms can leverage digital innovations to capture information about the physical world and physical processes, leading to optimization of physical structures and processes to reduce emissions.⁵ This involves using digital models that leverage advanced algorithms and extensive databases to run iterative simulations and predictions in a low-cost, low-emissions digital world before turning the models into physical structures.

The article explores the integration of digital innovation and lifecycle assessment (LCA) to realize digitally enabled, digital-first sustainability strategies. After highlighting three important digital innovations in the construction industry and introducing LCA, we offer an integrated sustainability framework that lays out opportunities for integrating digital innovations into LCA. By integrating digital technologies with LCA, construction companies can make informed decisions that minimize environmental impact, reduce waste, and promote energy efficiency.

Start with BIM

The key to digital transforming the construction industry is BIM, a comprehensive digital method that creates a digitally accessible model of a construction project.⁶ It uses data exchange and standardized interfaces to allow stakeholders to easily collaborate, quickly identify potential conflicts, and optimize material use.

Drones, remote sensing, and IoT are also changing the construction industry by providing continuous streams of data on construction progress. Drones and laser scanners let companies (1) monitor progress and (2) compare the construction site with the planned BIM models to continuously update and improve it.

Sensors and smart meters provide real-time data on energy consumption, material use, and environmental conditions during the operation phase, turning BIMs into digital twins of an asset. The digital twin is an essential input for BIM-based construction projects across all phases, including design (as-planned model), construction (as-built model), and asset operations (extended digital twin). It can be used to improve models, optimize operations, identify inefficiencies, and implement energy-saving measures.

Finally, these models and data streams create conditions for AI use, including statistical learning algorithms that can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns, optimize processes, and predict outcomes. AI can dramatically improve asset planning, construction, and operations through predictions and optimization. In the next section, we show how digital innovations can lead to an advanced LCA process for climate mitigation.

LCA: Foundation for a Sustainable Future

LCA is a comprehensive methodology that evaluates the environmental impact of a product, construction asset, or system across its lifecycle.⁷ This assessment spans every phase, from extraction of raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, construction, operation, and end-of-life disposal (or, preferably, recycling).

In the construction industry, LCA is critical for understanding the full scope of a project’s environmental implications. By analyzing the entire lifecycle, it identifies stages where the environmental impact is most significant, whether that’s energy-intensive material production, emissions generated during construction, or long-term energy use of an asset during its operational phase.

LCA allows construction companies to quantify environmental factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water use, and waste generation across each project phase. This gives stakeholders a clear picture of the environmental footprint of a building or infrastructure project, helping them make informed decisions that minimize negative impacts. For instance, LCA might reveal that a particular type of concrete would result in higher emissions during production but lower energy consumption during an asset’s operational life, helping to balance short-term and long-term environmental impacts.

An integral part of LCA is environmental product declarations (EPDs), which provide standardized documentation on the environmental impact of individual building materials or products. EPDs offer transparent, verified data on the carbon footprint, energy use, and resource depletion associated with a product. These declarations are essential for accurately assessing the environmental impact of the materials used in construction. When integrated into LCA, EPDs help construction companies make informed comparisons between materials and products so they can choose the ones with the least environmental impact.

Opportunities for Integrating Digital Innovation & LCA

Digital innovations can enhance LCA practices in several ways (see Figure 1):⁸

• Leverage digital-first sustainability for improved environmental simulation and modeling. BIM is a powerful tool that creates detailed digital designs of buildings, enabling a digital-first approach in which various design scenarios and optimizations can be simulated at marginal cost. This lets architects and engineers assess the environmental impacts of design choices before physical work begins. For example, BIM can model the energy performance of various window types, wall materials, or HVAC systems, helping project teams select options that reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. It can also simulate how much the use of recycled or low-impact materials would lower the overall environmental footprint of the building.

• Leverage digitally enabled sustainability for environmental data collection and analysis. Drones, remote sensing, and IoT bring a new level of precision to LCA by enabling continuous monitoring of an asset’s physical state. For example, drones and laser scanners help companies identify issues with insulation during construction. IoT sensors can be embedded in structures to track real-time data on energy consumption, water use, material wear, and environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. This data collection is invaluable for LCA, enabling assessments based on operational performance rather than theoretical models or estimates. For instance, by monitoring energy use at different times of day and/or seasons, IoT devices reveal how building systems perform under varying conditions, leading to more accurate and dynamic LCA outcomes.

• Combine digitally enabled and digital-first sustainability for continuous optimization. AI plays a crucial role in analyzing the vast amounts of data generated by BIM, drones, remote sensors, and IoT devices. AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends that might not be immediately apparent and suggest optimizations that can significantly reduce environmental impacts. For example, AI can analyze LCA data to recommend alternative construction methods that use less material or generate less waste. Similarly, physical processes such as material transportation can be optimized, reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Finally, AI can help with predictive maintenance, identifying when equipment is likely to fail and suggesting repairs before breakdowns occur, minimizing downtime.

• Improve regulatory compliance and reporting for more sustainable construction. As sustainability regulations become stricter, LCA is the key to helping construction companies ensure compliance with stricter environmental laws and standards. BIM, IoT, and AI can automate environmental-impact tracking and reporting, making it easier to meet regulatory requirements and demonstrate sustainability credentials to stakeholders. This is particularly important for projects seeking certifications such as BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) or DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council), where detailed environmental reporting is mandatory.

• Understand end-of-life considerations. LCA does not stop at the construction or operational phases of an asset. It includes the end-of-life stage, which encompasses demolition, recycling, or repurposing of asset materials. Digital tools can assist in planning for an asset’s end of life at the design stage. BIM can be used to design assets that are more easily deconstructed, allowing materials to be recycled or reused. AI optimizes this process by analyzing the best ways to disassemble structures to recover the maximum amount of reusable material, reducing the need for new resources and lowering environmental impact.

3 Examples

The following three examples illustrate the application of digital innovation and LCA in the construction industry: 

1. Skanska’s digital-first sustainability strategy using BIM-integrated LCA. Skanska, a leading global construction and development company, is an interesting example of an incumbent construction firm that has successfully integrated BIM with LCA to assess the environmental impacts of their projects.⁹ During the construction of Powerhouse One development in Trondheim, Norway, Skanska used BIM to model design options and their associated environmental impacts. This iterative, digital-first approach moved the assessment, experimentation, and reduction of environmental impact to the digital world, where iterations come with a marginal cost, allowing the company to select the most sustainable design before moving to the construction phase and reducing the building’s carbon footprint.

2. Integration of One Click LCA with Bentley System’s iTwin platform to leverage IoT. iTwin is a cloud-based solution that enables creation, visualization, and analysis of construction projects. The platform lets project teams incorporate real-time data from IoT devices such as sensors and drones. This provides a continuous, accurate reflection of an asset’s current state that can feed into the LCA calculations of One Click LCA via integration with iTwin.^10,11 The information from the physical world comes first, and when captured and turned into a digital model through IoT, it improves the LCA of an asset that can be further optimized for sustainability.

3. Combined digital-first and digitally enabled sustainability at Edge Technologies. The Edge — located in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and developed by Edge Technologies — is one of the world’s most innovative and sustainable office buildings.¹² A BIM guided the design of the building, leveraging digital-first predictions and iterations to maximize natural light. It includes a smart, comprehensive renewable energy system, including an array of photovoltaic solar panels, that provides sustainable electricity and thermal energy storage system for heating and cooling. These features earned The Edge the highest BREEAM rating for sustainability. The building follows a digitally enabled sustainability strategy to enhance sustainability and efficiency, using IoT sensors to monitor conditions like lighting, temperature, and occupancy in real time. This data is fed into AI algorithms to optimize energy use, resulting in 70% less electricity consumption than traditional office buildings of similar size and occupancy.

Challenges to LCA Integration

Digital innovation and LCA offer unique opportunities, but the challenges that forward-thinking construction companies face are significant. They include:

• Lack of data integration and standardization. The construction industry increasingly uses digital tools like BIM, remote sensing, IoT, and AI to improve project outcomes. These tools often operate on different platforms and use different data formats, making it difficult to integrate them into an LCA framework for digital sustainability. The lack of standardized data is a serious challenge to generating accurate, comprehensive environmental assessments.

• Up-front costs and skills gaps. Adopting advanced digital tools and comprehensive LCA practices requires substantial financial investment, including acquiring the necessary technology, training employees, and maintaining the required infrastructure. This leads to a “green premium” — higher short-term costs for a more sustainable outcome. Additionally, using these technologies demands specialized skills that many construction professionals do not possess. This gap poses a barrier to the widespread adoption of these innovations and digital sustainability strategies.

• Complex regulations and lack of reporting standardization. Although our digital sustainability approach allows companies to follow regulations, the construction industry has an increasingly complex landscape of environmental regulations that vary by region and are continuously evolving. Compliance requires continuous reassessment and improvement of firms’ digital sustainability strategies to ensure a detailed and accurate LCA. Additionally, EPDs, which provide critical data on the environmental impact of building materials, currently lack standardization. Their inconsistent availability makes it difficult to compare materials, run realistic digital-first simulations, and ensure that projects meet all regulatory requirements.

• Resistance to change and short-term focus. The construction industry is slow to adopt new technologies, often due to cultural resistance to change and a preference for established methods. This is compounded by a focus on short-term financial gains rather than long-term sustainability. Many stakeholders prioritize immediate cost savings over potential long-term benefits, delaying digital tool implementation and hindering adoption of LCA practices essential for improving environmental performance through digital sustainability strategies.

A Guide to Realizing Integrated Digital Sustainability

To overcome these challenges and work toward full realization of digital sustainability strategies, we recommend the following:

• Invest in training and skill development. Successful implementation of digital sustainability strategies that combine digital innovation and LCA requires a workforce and internal digital sustainability champions with expertise in both digital innovation and sustainability. Investing in training programs and continuous professional development is critical to ensure that employees are equipped to integrate digital innovations and LCA and navigate its associated challenges.

• Promote industry collaboration. Collaboration between construction companies, technology providers, and academic institutions can drive innovation and the development of standardized practices. Joint research initiatives and knowledge-sharing platforms can accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and LCA methodologies. Collaboration can help companies better understand and work within the existing regulatory environment or work toward improved conditions for digital sustainability.

• Understand and tap into the regulatory environment. Government policies and regulations can hinder digital sustainability strategies, but they can also support them. Firms need to understand the environment, face hurdles head-on, and seek out potential support. Incentives like tax breaks, grants, and subsidies for sustainable practices can encourage companies to invest in digital sustainability strategies.

• Focus on long-term benefits. Even with favorable regulatory conditions, initial investment in integrated digital innovations and LCA can be significant. Companies must convince their investors and stakeholders to take a long-term approach and factor in the potential for both environmental and economic benefits.

• Leverage case studies and best practices. To make their initial investment effective, firms should study successful case studies and best practices to discover insights and learn practical ways to implement digital innovations and LCA. Companies can adapt these strategies to their own situations to achieve similar benefits.

• Adopt integrated digital platforms. Following innovative case studies and standout sustainable construction projects allows firms to assess which tools and platforms they need to realize digital sustainability. Using integrated digital platforms that combine digital innovation and LCA (e.g., through APIs and extensions) is the basis for moving from strategizing to implementation.

• Standardize data and methodologies. These platforms and tools can only help companies realize the potential of digital first when firms use standardized data formats and LCA methodologies for consistency and comparability across projects. This standardization can facilitate better decision-making and sustainability performance benchmarking.

These guidelines are a set of recommendations intended to work together in continuous iterations. As companies integrate these strategies, the construction industry will begin to see the potential of digital innovation and LCA, paving the way for a more sustainable future.

References

¹ Neo, Gim Huay, and Yvonne Zhou. “The Building Sector Is Key to the Fight Against Climate Change.” World Economic Forum, 26 June 2024. 

² “Overview Article — The Digital Transformation of the Built Environment and Construction 4.0.” European Commission, 1 February 2024.

³ Bohnsack, René, Christina M. Bidmon, and Jonatan Pinkse. “Sustainability in the Digital Age: Intended and Unintended Consequences of Digital Technologies for Sustainable Development.” Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 31, No. 2, December 2021.

⁴ Falcke, Lukas, et al. “Digital Sustainability Strategies: Digitally-Enabled and Digital-First Innovation for Net Zero.” Academy of Management Perspectives, 18 March 2024.

⁵ Falcke et al. (see 4).

⁶ Sacks, Rafael, et al. BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Designers, Engineers, Contractors, and Facility Managers. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.

⁷ “ISO 14044:2006/AMD 2:2020: Environmental Management — Life Cycle Assessment —Requirements and Guidelines, Amendment 2.” International Standards Organization (ISO), 2020.

⁸ Falcke et al. (see 4).

⁹ Rowe, Lauren. “How Skanska Uses Building Information Modeling to Design Better Buildings.” TriplePundit, 2 August 2013.

¹⁰ “iTwin IoT.” Bentley, accessed November 2024.

¹¹ Pasanen, Panu. “Bentley Systems and One Click LCA Integration.” Press release, One Click LCA, 10 July 2024.

¹² Li, ZiQing. “Case Study: Sustainable Features of the Edge in Amsterdam.” ArchInspires, 12 August 2024.