The Doughnut Biotool: A tool to assess life-cycle biodiversity impacts from building projects

Nicolas Francart, Rasmus Nøddegaard Hansen, Camilla Marlene Ernst Andersen, Morten Ryberg, Liv Kristensen Stranddorf, Harpa Birgisdottir*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference article in JournalResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used in certifications, regulations, and voluntary declarations covering the climate impact of buildings over their entire value chain. However, biodiversity impacts and other environmental impact categories are often disregarded. Conversely, there is a trend towards more systematic assessments of the biodiversity impacts that occur on-site as part of development projects (e.g. land transformation on the project site). However, off-site biodiversity impacts occurring throughout the rest of the value chain (e.g. from forestry activities, mining, manufacturing, heat and electricity production) are rarely considered. To bridge this gap, this article introduces the Doughnut Biotool, an open-source calculation tool to assess biodiversity impacts throughout the entire life cycle of development projects. The tool was initially developed to help implement Doughnut Economics and absolute sustainability principles in development projects. It constitutes a first step towards a better consideration of biodiversity impacts related to material- and energy use in building and construction projects. This paper presents the design of the tool and the method and data it relies on. The tool is applied to two separate case study projects, and used as a basis to discuss hotspots of biodiversity impacts within the building's life cycle. Finally, the paper includes a discussion of the main challenges and opportunities for the future development and use of the tool, as well as for biodiversity impact assessments in the building sector as a whole.
Original languageEnglish
Article number012049
JournalIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
Volume1402
Issue number1
ISSN1755-1307
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event2024 International Conference on Challenges for the Next Generation Built Environment, NEXTBUILT 2024 - Bologna, Italy
Duration: 9 May 202410 May 2024

Conference

Conference2024 International Conference on Challenges for the Next Generation Built Environment, NEXTBUILT 2024
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityBologna
Period09/05/202410/05/2024

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