Applicability of a novel Indicator Method to assessment of the impact of buildings on the environment

It is common in the building sector to require that several variants of a planned building be developed. Evaluation of such variant solutions can refer to different aspects, but in compliance with the binding EU legal regulations, it is obligatory to take into consideration different stages in the life cycle of a building in any such assessment. As recommended, the evaluation of a life cycle should include three basic aspects, that is costs and the impact on the social and natural environment. It can encompass the development of an entire building, or in other cases it might be justified to analyse particular components of a development project. The literature on the subject implicates certain shortcomings of commonly used methods. The article presents an innovative approach to the assessment of variants, based on a case of designing a roof of a production hall, where various material solutions for the roof truss are considered. A proprietary approach called the Indicator Method was used for the evaluation. The method employs both positive and negative values, direct and indirect (local and global) impacts, and the model appraisal was based on selected indicators for all stages of the facility's life cycle. Assessment with negative and positive values yields more varied results, which may facilitate decision making. Furthermore, the inclusion of factors covering all stages of the life cycle has identified critical stages in the facility's life cycle. The research confirmed that the proposed Indicator Method can fill identified the research gap by providing innovative tools to evaluate the environmental impact of a building more comprehensively.