Supporting sustainable building development through BIM-enabled life cycle assessment: evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

This study aims to develop and validate a building information modeling (BIM)-enabled life cycle assessment (LCA) framework for quantifying and reducing the environmental impacts of buildings during the design stage. The research addresses the limited implementation of BIM-integrated sustainability assessment in developing countries and evaluates the effectiveness of low-carbon design strategies in the Vietnamese construction context. A BIM-LCA framework integrating Autodesk Revit and One Click LCA was developed in accordance with EN 15978 standards and applied to a seven-storey hotel project in Quang Ngai, Vietnam. The assessment adopted a functional unit of 1 m2 of gross floor area over a 60-year service life and considered life-cycle stages from material production to end-of-life. Two alternative design scenarios were compared: a conventional reinforced-concrete baseline and a low-carbon scenario incorporating supplementary cementitious materials, recycled steel, autoclaved aerated concrete blocks, photovoltaic systems and water-efficiency measures. The results demonstrate that the proposed low-carbon design significantly improves environmental performance. The total Global Warming Potential (GWP) decreased from 9.19 million kg CO2e to 5.93 million kg CO2e, representing a reduction of 35.4%. Material production stages (A1–A3) remained the dominant contributor, accounting for more than 75% of total life-cycle emissions in both scenarios. In addition, the low-carbon scenario achieved substantial reductions in ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication and fossil fuel depletion, exceeding the environmental thresholds required for LEED v4.1 certification. This study contributes to the sustainable built-environment literature by providing one of the first empirical applications of a BIM-integrated LCA framework for hospitality buildings in Vietnam. The proposed approach demonstrates how BIM can be combined with life-cycle thinking to support early-stage environmental decision-making in data-constrained contexts. The findings provide practical guidance for architects, engineers and policymakers seeking to accelerate low-carbon building development and promote sustainable construction practices in emerging economies.