Sustainability in the built environment has typically been framed in relation to the impacts of new buildings on their immediate surroundings without adequately considering the impacts remote from the project site but caused by the project.

The industry is starting to look more holistically at the whole life carbon impacts of new construction projects and retrofits, but what would that look like if we explored other indicators of ecosystem health in the context of life cycle assessment methodologies? How could holistic life cycle assessment reduce energy use and carbon emissions as well as facilitate a circular economy and regenerative design?

The focus of this research would be on the interplay between whole life carbon (integrating embodied and operational demand and supply impacts) and whole life energy, water, and other whole life ecosystem impacts of buildings and their associated infrastructure.

This project aims to develop a new framework for life cycle assessment for new-build and retrofit building development projects in order to increase the applicability of life cycle assessment in driving action against climate change and ecosystem breakdown.
Aspects to research and include:
- Dynamic: temporal considerations such as grid decarbonisation and the time it takes for natural systems to regenerate
- Holistic: expanding the range of indicators of ecosystem health such as water
- Other inherent restrictions of existing Life Cycle Assessment methods, building on previous PhD students' findings
Pilot testing of the framework will include consultation with industry and be supported by an impact assessment of real-world project(s) to stress test the framework learning, recommendations and next steps.