Integrated Assessment of Carbon Footprint in Regenerative Building Design: BIM–LCA-Based Evaluation of Circular Material Scenarios for Zero-Carbon Districts

Assessing environmental impacts across the full life cycle of buildings is essential for advancing toward a net-zero and regenerative built environment. However, life cycle inventory generation and impact assessment remain methodologically complex and time-intensive, limiting their integration into early design decision-making. This study aims to quantify and reduce the embodied carbon of a regenerated building while optimizing material selection based on environmental performance and circularity potential. An integrated Building Information Modeling–Life Cycle Assessment (BIM–LCA) framework combined with Sensitivity Analysis (SA) was applied within a circular economy perspective. A regenerative building was modeled using BIM, and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data were employed to conduct a detailed life cycle assessment to quantify embodied carbon and identify emission hotspots across life cycle stages. The results indicate that material extraction, processing, and manufacturing dominate environmental impacts, contributing more than 85% of total CO2 emissions. Sensitivity analysis further demonstrates the influence of material choices on overall carbon performance. The findings underscore the importance of evaluating embodied carbon at early design stages to support informed decisions regarding material efficiency, renewability, and recyclability. The proposed BIM–LCA framework provides a scalable, data-driven approach to support early-stage decarbonization strategies and contributes to reducing the carbon footprint of buildings in alignment with net-zero and regenerative design objectives.