A practical guide on assessing and reducing environmental impact across all building life cycle stages
As sustainability becomes central to design and construction practices, professionals must go beyond intuition and embrace Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to measure and minimize embodied carbon. Life Cycle Driven Construction is a much-needed bridge between theory and application for assessing environmental performance across the full span of a building's life. Integrating life cycle thinking directly into structural design decision-making, this timely book equips readers with the essential knowledge and tools to perform robust LCA to meet growing regulatory and market demands for environmentally conscious design.
Alper Kanyilmaz, a leading expert in sustainable construction and LCA education, provides a structured, methodical approach supported by practical exercises and real-world case studies. The author addresses a critical knowledge gap in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) curricula and practice by demonstrating how LCA can inform material selection, structural systems, and construction methods. In-depth chapters cover steel, reinforced concrete, and mass timber structures—offering nuanced comparisons and clear guidance on using environmental product declarations (EPDs), carbon databases, and reduction strategies.
Delivering a comprehensive, hands-on learning experience that directly supports the AEC sector's shift toward lower-carbon, more sustainable building practices, Life Cycle Driven Construction:
- Covers the full building life cycle, including material sourcing, construction, operation, and end-of-life stages
- Presents comparative LCA results for different structural systems and material choices
- Features real-world case studies to illustrate the practical application of theory
- Includes hands-on exercises to reinforce understanding and build applied skills
- Discusses key tools, databases, and environmental product declarations (EPDs) used in LCA
- Provides insights drawn from cutting-edge European research projects and teaching experience
Aligned with ISO 14000 standards for environmental management, Life Cycle Driven Structures is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in civil engineering, architecture, and construction management programs, and is also a valuable reference for AEC professionals pursuing sustainable practices in industry.
Chapter 1: What is the role of construction industry in the climate
crisis?
1.1. Climate Crisis Components
1.2. What can (should) the construction industry do?
1.3. Carbon footprint of buildings
1.4. The influence of structural systems on the building carbon footprint
1.5. Key strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of structural systems
1.6. Conclusion
1.7. Questions
1.8. References
Chapter 2: A summary of Life-Cycle Analysis focusing on embodied carbon of
steel, timber and concrete
2.1. Introduction to Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA)
2.2. The Stages of Life-Cycle Analysis for Building Structures
2.3. Upfront Carbon (A1 to A3) for Steel, Concrete, and Timber construction
products
2.4. Construction Stage Carbon for Building Structures (A4 to A5)
2.5. End-of-Life Stages
2.6. Beyond the Life Cycle (D)
2.7. Embodied carbon intensity rating systems
2.8. Conclusion
2.9. Questions
2.10. References
Chapter 3: Embodied Carbon in Building Structures
3.1 Bill of Quantity
3.2 Embodied carbon "equivalent"
3.3 Scope 3 Emissions and Embodied Carbon
3.4 Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
3.5 Measuring and Normalizing Embodied Carbon
3.6 Strategies for Reducing Embodied Carbon
3.7 Practical Exercise: Example of Calculation of Embodied Carbon Intensity
of a multi-storey building
3.8 Conclusion
3.9 More exercises
3.10 Discussion and Review Questions
3.11 References
Chapter 4: Life Cycle Sensitivity Analysis (LCSA) at Component Level
4.1 Columns (Steel, Timber, Concrete, Composite)
4.2 Beams (IPE, HEA, Truss, Steel, Timber, Reinforced Concrete)
4.3 Questions
4.4 References
Chapter 5: Life Cycle Analysis Optioneering (LCAO) at Building Level
5.1 Why is optioneering at the conceptual design stage is important?
5.2 Buildings and assumptions used for benchmarking
5.3 Early-Stage design alternatives using representative portions
5.4 The impact of tubular profiles and higher strength steel
5.5 Influence of the carbon factor selection on the final results
5.6 What if we use a hybrid approach combining CLT slabs with a Steel
frame?
5.7 How to account for uncertainty of input carbon factors?
5.8 Questions
5.9 References
Chapter 6: Balancing the costs and carbon footprint during conceptual
design
6.1 The need for a new advanced option for conceptual design
6.2 Decisions given at a conceptual design of building structures
6.3 Genetic Algorithm-Based Multi-Objective Optimization for Conceptual
Design
6.4 Case study
6.5 Sensitivity of carbon factor to the results
6.6 Impact of Geometric Parameters on Building Cost and Embodied Carbon
6.8 Conclusions and future trends of a data-driven conceptual design
Chapter 7: Earthquake-Resistant Design and Embodied Carbon
7.1 LCA under seismic demands
7.2 Impact of seismic design principles on sustainability
7.3 Resilience vs. Sustainability Trade-offs: Repairability, Reuse, and
Material combination
7.4 Influence of Codes and Performance-Based Design on Sustainability
7.5 Conclusion
7.6 Questions
7.7 Case studies
7.8 References
Chapter 8 Implementing Life Cycle Analysis: Case Studies from Practice
8.1 Adaptive reuse
8.2 Hybrid construction
8.3 Modular construction
8.4 High Strength Steel
8.5 High Strength Concrete
8.6 Digital construction
8.7 Data driven optioneering
8.8 Architectural ambitions with low embodied carbon
8.9 Earthquake resistant design w
8.10 Sustainable design when building at poor soil conditions
8.11 Reclaimed steel
8.12 Sustainable bridge design
8.13 Conclusion
8.14 Questions
8.15 References
Chapter 9: Conclusion
References
Appendices
Appendix A: Glossary of Terms
Appendix B: List of EPDs and LCA Tools
Catchwords
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
Embodied Carbon
Life Cycle Sensitivity Analysis (LCSA)
Sustainable Construction
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
Structural Optimization
Carbon Reduction Strategies
Circular Economy
Green Building Practices
Construction Materials (Steel, Concrete, Timber)
Environmental Impact and Regulations
Alper Kanyilmaz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, Built Environment, and Construction Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. A leader in sustainable construction and structural engineering, he coordinates major EU and industry-funded research projects exploring topics such as expert systems for optimizing construction processes, multi-objective conceptual design and reuse strategies, and fiber optic interferometry for post-earthquake monitoring, all focused on optimizing cost, embodied carbon and structural performance in construction industry.
He is an Expert Advisor for the European Commission Steel Advisory Group, and a project monitoring expert for future low-emission industries. Kanyilmaz teaches and trains more than 300 students and professionals annually on life-cycle-driven construction. He is the founder of the acclaimed course, Life-Cycle Driven Structures.
