Impact of progressive sustainable target value assessment on building design decisions

• The STV framework links building impacts with ecologic carrying capacity.
• STV combines life cycle assessment (LCA) and target value design (TVD).
• STV was used iteratively to evaluate the evolution of design impacts.
• Design team members used STV to inform design decisions and increase communication.
• A case study explored the relationship between cost and life cycle carbon impacts.

The built environment creates significant environmental, economic, and social impacts. In the building construction industry, building designers, contractors, and owners have developed methods to consider costs, but currently have few methods to effectively assess and control a building's life cycle energy and environmental impacts during the design phase. Managing and reducing these environmental impacts during the course of design development requires iterative assessment and rapid information turnaround and decision-making. When left unconsidered, poor environmental design decisions leave potential design revisions and their value unrealized. This research combines life cycle assessment (LCA) and target value design (TVD) to rapidly produce more sustainable building designs in a methodology called sustainable target value (STV) design. The STV design process involves environmental design targets and an STV tool to quantify environmental design performance in an iterative design process. By establishing site-specific sustainability targets and iteratively using the STV tool to assess the impacts of design changes, this research demonstrates that building designs can be improved at the design stage to perform at higher environmental standards than if they are only assessed once design is complete.