Balancing Carbon Emissions in Façade of Residential Buildings Through BIM-LCA: A Comparative Analysis of Insulation Materials

Thermal insulation materials play a significant role in balancing buildings' total carbon emissions. Balancing involves applying the optimized amount of insulation materials to avoid excessive emissions in either the operational or embodied phases. Due to the wide range of insulation materials and variations of their specifications, it is vital to analyse them individually. The focus of this study is to optimize the amount of insulation materials in the facades of Residential Buildings (RB) to balance the amount of Operational Carbon Emissions (OCE) and Embodied Carbon Emissions (ECE) by applying the Building Information Modelling-Life Cycle Assessment (BIM-LCA) integration method. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) stages, from extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, construction, usage, and end-of-life, as well as the impact assessment categories, are based on European standards. 49 building materials are utilized during this research activity, which includes the three insulation materials as alternatives, such as Glass wool, polyurethane (PUR), and Natural Cork from mineral, synthetic, and natural categories, and lightweight concrete blocks made from pumice, and clay brick blocks as other alternatives for the main core of the Facades. The RB under study is a prototype sample located in Milan. After performing the methodology and analyses, the results demonstrate that thermal conductivity and density play an important role. For instance, Natural Cork in higher thickness values performs better, while PUR in lower ones.