Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs

This article aims to study the political, environmental and economic factors in contemporary society that influence new approaches and decision making in design in terms of carbon emissions and energy employment. These issues are increasingly influencing political decision making and public policy t...

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Autores principales:	Sara Giaveno, Anna Osello, Davide Garufi, Diego Santamaria Razo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	computational parametric sustainability evaluation partnership governance Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b7051e4dea634390b6b33876a416deec
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b7051e4dea634390b6b33876a416deec2021-11-11T19:38:47ZEmbodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs10.3390/su1321119742071-1050https://doaj.org/article/b7051e4dea634390b6b33876a416deec2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11974https://doaj.org/toc/2071-1050This article aims to study the political, environmental and economic factors in contemporary society that influence new approaches and decision making in design in terms of carbon emissions and energy employment. These issues are increasingly influencing political decision making and public policy throughout every aspect of society, including the design practice. Managing this kind of complexity means adopting new forms of collaboration, methodologies and tools, knowledge and technology sharing. The article aims to narrate a PhD research experience grounded in academy–industry collaboration and aimed at creating a digital methodology for impact evaluation and investment planning. In particular, the digital methodology focuses on responding to international public policy for the sustainable growth of cities, in terms of footprint and energy demand, by including a holistic view of the design process made possible by the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) procedures. To simplify the calculation, the methodology focuses on the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) data rather than the entire LCA. The EPD is a document that describes the environmental impacts linked to the production of a specific quantity of product or service. The objective was not to create another evaluation method but to employ the EPD results in combination with parametric and computational procedures. The integration of those procedures by using visual programming and scripting allowed the calculation of Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy and created a user-friendly interface to query the results. The output obtained included automatic and dynamic diagrams able to identify impact scenarios in terms of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and MJ of embodied energy after the conceptual design stage. The strategic use of the charts lies in their potential to simulate impact conditions and, therefore, in the chance to create sustainable transformation scenarios in the early stages of design. At this point, the influence on choices is at its highest, and the costs are low. Moreover, the methodology represents a platform of collaboration that potentially increases the level of interaction between the actors of the construction process with the consequent improvement in design quality. In conclusion, building the design methodology and testing its performance within a specific sociotechnical context was important in critically evaluating certain topics, for example, the recent European strategies on new technology to reach sustainable objectives, the role of digital tools in proposing solutions towards contemporary social issues, the birth of new forms of partnership and collaboration and the new possibilities coming from digital evaluation approaches.Sara GiavenoAnna OselloDavide GarufiDiego Santamaria RazoMDPI AGarticlecomputationalparametricsustainabilityevaluationpartnershipgovernanceEnvironmental effects of industries and plantsTD194-195Renewable energy sourcesTJ807-830Environmental sciencesGE1-350ENSustainability, Vol 13, Iss 11974, p 11974 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	computational parametric sustainability evaluation partnership governance Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350
spellingShingle	computational parametric sustainability evaluation partnership governance Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Sara Giaveno Anna Osello Davide Garufi Diego Santamaria Razo Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs
description	This article aims to study the political, environmental and economic factors in contemporary society that influence new approaches and decision making in design in terms of carbon emissions and energy employment. These issues are increasingly influencing political decision making and public policy throughout every aspect of society, including the design practice. Managing this kind of complexity means adopting new forms of collaboration, methodologies and tools, knowledge and technology sharing. The article aims to narrate a PhD research experience grounded in academy–industry collaboration and aimed at creating a digital methodology for impact evaluation and investment planning. In particular, the digital methodology focuses on responding to international public policy for the sustainable growth of cities, in terms of footprint and energy demand, by including a holistic view of the design process made possible by the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) procedures. To simplify the calculation, the methodology focuses on the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) data rather than the entire LCA. The EPD is a document that describes the environmental impacts linked to the production of a specific quantity of product or service. The objective was not to create another evaluation method but to employ the EPD results in combination with parametric and computational procedures. The integration of those procedures by using visual programming and scripting allowed the calculation of Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy and created a user-friendly interface to query the results. The output obtained included automatic and dynamic diagrams able to identify impact scenarios in terms of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and MJ of embodied energy after the conceptual design stage. The strategic use of the charts lies in their potential to simulate impact conditions and, therefore, in the chance to create sustainable transformation scenarios in the early stages of design. At this point, the influence on choices is at its highest, and the costs are low. Moreover, the methodology represents a platform of collaboration that potentially increases the level of interaction between the actors of the construction process with the consequent improvement in design quality. In conclusion, building the design methodology and testing its performance within a specific sociotechnical context was important in critically evaluating certain topics, for example, the recent European strategies on new technology to reach sustainable objectives, the role of digital tools in proposing solutions towards contemporary social issues, the birth of new forms of partnership and collaboration and the new possibilities coming from digital evaluation approaches.
format	article
author	Sara Giaveno Anna Osello Davide Garufi Diego Santamaria Razo
author_facet	Sara Giaveno Anna Osello Davide Garufi Diego Santamaria Razo
author_sort	Sara Giaveno
title	Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs
title_short	Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs
title_full	Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs
title_fullStr	Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs
title_full_unstemmed	Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs
title_sort	embodied carbon and embodied energy scenarios in the built environment. computational design meets epds
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b7051e4dea634390b6b33876a416deec
work_keys_str_mv	AT saragiaveno embodiedcarbonandembodiedenergyscenariosinthebuiltenvironmentcomputationaldesignmeetsepds AT annaosello embodiedcarbonandembodiedenergyscenariosinthebuiltenvironmentcomputationaldesignmeetsepds AT davidegarufi embodiedcarbonandembodiedenergyscenariosinthebuiltenvironmentcomputationaldesignmeetsepds AT diegosantamariarazo embodiedcarbonandembodiedenergyscenariosinthebuiltenvironmentcomputationaldesignmeetsepds
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Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy Scenarios in the Built Environment. Computational Design Meets EPDs

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