In this way, the framework allows to join the large amount of LCA  information with the different phases of design process, setting out in  addition the related actors involved and references used. The first key factor  of the framework is that quantitative and thus environmental data are collected  in relation to the phase of the design process. The second key factor is that they  are gradually defined, specified and detailed in conjunction with the process,  becoming even more accurate, reliable and corresponding to reality. The third  key factor is that LCA information are gathered in every phase of the design  process by different actors, empowering therefore designers, contractors and  facility managers for the choices and operations taken in their own expertise  area. Indeed, these factors are crucial to achieve the following goals: turn  LCA into a real supporting tool within the decision-making process of AEC  practice and activate the type of mechanisms able to start the process of  improvement and optimization of the construction sector in line with life cycle  perspective and environmental targets. In addition, it is important to  underline that this conceptual framework is developed on the basis of LCA  methodology (environmental impacts) but can be easily improved with Life Cycle  Costing – LCC methodology (economic impacts) and with greater difficulty with  Social Life Cycle Assessment – S-LCA methodology (social impacts).

Life Cycle approach in design process within a BIM-oriented environment

As stated in the last paragraph, the  implementation of the life cycle approach in the design process represents one  of the challenges of the next years, due to the large contribution of the  construction sector to the achievement of the shared sustainable and  environmental goals. Undoubtedly, this requires a complex and demanding course  of action, emphasized in particular by two factors: the increasingly  fragmentation that characterizes the construction field and the fact that the built  environment constitutes an unicum strongly influenced by the context. In this  perspective, it is important to not reduce the complexity of the construction system  assimilating it to standardized industrial products and processes, but rather to  consider each system with the related design process in its individuality  taking into account the own peculiarities of the case in object.
With this aim and consistently with the trends currently underway in AEC  practice, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is identified as the most  suitable tool to face the hard task established by the suggested conceptual  framework. The same denomination of BIM allows to make clear its potentialities  in relation to the requirements previously set by matching LCA and design  process. Indeed, the term “Building” concerns the physical characteristics of  the model and stresses its capability to virtually recreate the facility  considering the project-based tangible features. The term “Information” concerns  the intangible characteristics of the model and stresses its capability to  organize the set of facility’s data in a meaningful and actionable manner.  Lastly, the term “Modelling” concerns the act of shaping, forming, presenting  and scoping the facility and stresses its capability to enable multiple stakeholders  to collaboratively design, construct and operate the facility. The resulting  BIM model is therefore conceived as a database that embedded, display and  calculates graphical/tangible and non-graphical/intangible information, linking  each other and forming a reliable basis for decisions potentially during the  project life cycle. In this way, BIM is perfectly able to fit the proposed  conceptual framework and thus to embrace the wide range of information required  to develop an LCA study as well as the plurality of actors involved in the  process.