Sustainable target value design: integrating life cycle assessment and target value design to improve building energy and environmental performance

• Sustainable target value (STV) design combines LCA and target value design (TVD).
• Building life cycle performance targets are developed for CO2, energy, H2O, and O3.
• STV targets are based on the planet's ecological carrying capacity.
• STV software tool is developed to assess building design environmental performance.
• Design teams with STV designed more sustainable buildings than teams without.

Buildings are the largest consumer of energy and greatest contributor to climate change in the United States—consuming approximately half of energy produced and contributing close to half of greenhouse gas emissions. Building designers, contractors, and owners currently have few methods to effectively control a building's life cycle energy and environmental impacts during the design phase. Managing and reducing these impacts during design requires rapid information turnaround and decision-making. When left unconsidered, poor environmental design decisions leave potential design value uncaptured. This research combines life cycle assessment (LCA) and target value design (TVD) to rapidly produce more sustainable building designs. By establishing site-specific sustainability targets and using dynamically-updating life cycle assessments, this research demonstrates that buildings can be designed to perform at higher environmental standards than those designed without a target in place. The research also offers unique opportunities to analyze the tradeoffs between design and operational decisions.