Life-cycle Assessment of Steel framed building

Abstract

This thesis highlights a practical software implementation utilizing Tekla and OneClick LCA to produce a Lifecycle Assessment report of HAMK Sheet Metal Centre. The assessment adheres to European policies and regulations concerning LCA, specifically ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The building has already been constructed during the assessment, so the report concentrates on comparing the building's circularity between two end-of-life scenarios. The findings include building assessment information, classification, and life-cycle stages for various parameters. Additionally, the report emphasizes the legal framework assessors need to comply with to generate reliable results and the importance of their interpretation. The thesis presents evidence that deconstructing and reusing materials enhances building circularity, ultimately reducing the energy input required for new materials. The results show that designing for deconstruction and reuse of the steel profiles and sandwich panels improves the building circularity index by 8 percent.