Evaluating the potential for circular economy integration into the building LCA tools in North America

Purpose The building industry, with its emission-intensive material use, is a crucial partner for achieving global carbon emission reduction targets. Various strategies are gradually being adopted to reduce the emissions from buildings, including the early application of the life cycle assessment (LCA) tool during the design stage to select the less emissive materials during new construction, sustainable strategies during retrofitting processes and sustainable materials management during demolition. This study aimed to critically analyze the existing LCA tools to understand their applications, limitations and potential to support circular economy (CE) integration. Design/methodology/approach In this study, two groups of commonly adopted LCA tools in North America, dedicated to whole building (TallyLCA, Athena, One Click LCA, GREET LCA, C.Scale, LCAbyg, EVAMED and EA Tool) and building materials/elements (EC3, TallyCAT, WoodWorks Carbon Calculator, BEAM Estimator, BEES, Beacon and EnviCASE) were selected and comprehensively evaluated using 17 indicators. The user manuals, reports and peer-reviewed literature were used to evaluate each indicator and rank each by adopting a five-point Likert scale. Findings GREET LCA and One Click LCA tools demonstrated the greatest potential for CE integration. However, they need to incorporate extended system boundaries covering end-of-life scenarios, ensure transparent data on material reuse and integrate circularity indicators and evaluation methods for a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts in circular construction. Originality/value The study proposed a new framework with 17 indicators within five distinctive criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the tools. Beyond benchmarking, the framework explicitly incorporates CE potentials that are often underrepresented in current assessments. This finding will facilitate users in selecting the most suitable tool for their specific applications while promoting CE adoption in the industry.