Target values for the sustainable design of steel industrial buildings in the framework of a limit state approach

This paper introduces a sustainability limit state methodology aimed at evaluating the environmental performance of buildings in a manner consistent with standardised structural safety design principles. By adopting a framework familiar to building designers, the approach seeks to seamlessly integrate sustainability into conventional design processes. A central challenge in this methodology is defining the ‘resistance’ functions—target values that represent the maximum acceptable environmental impact for a building. The primary objective of this study is to make this sustainability limit state concept operational by proposing a novel method for determining these ‘resistance’ functions. This is achieved by developing a comprehensive database of environmental impacts tailored to a specific building typology. Using distributional regression, the building’s environmental performance is then modelled as a probability distribution dependent on the parameters used in structural design. In this study, the methodology is demonstrated using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) indicator, applied to typical pitched-roof steel industrial buildings. Nevertheless, the approach is flexible and can be extended to other environmental indicators and building typologies.