Holistic assessment of the economic, environmental, and social impact of building construction. Application to housing construction in Andalusia

Abstract

Buildings, although increasingly efficient, currently lack a comparative analysis from a holistic perspective. A large part of the effort to increase their efficiency focuses on their direct consumption of water and energy through the design of more efficient systems, but another large part of the consumption is caused indirectly by the production processes and the construction itself, and these are usually disregarded. To tackle this problem, a model is proposed for the evaluation of indirect impacts that take place during the building construction phase. The three dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) from the construction site perspective are evaluated by integrating the assessment of social and environmental impact indicators with cost control tools. Construction cost control is normally defined by classification and coding systems of work units. In order to make this integration straightforward for practitioners, the existing classification is employed as a basis to systematize the evaluation of the other two dimensions of sustainability. The environmental assessment is covered with the PREDICE tool, developed here, which evaluates the footprint family indicators. For the social assessment, a secondary tool evaluates the project occupational risks. The model is applied to the construction of social housing in Andalusia, validating its versatility and allowing to simulate different scenarios. Five out of sixty work units evaluated represent around 70% of the total impact in each category. Three of those work units (concrete slab, façade plastering bricks, and brick partition walls) are replaced by a reticular slab, gypsum board partitions, and bricks with exposed face without plastering, respectively. These modifications allow reducing up to 20% the impacts in several categories.