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  • PESI-LCA in Building Manufacturing: A Triple-Bottom-Line Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Built Environment

    Fredrik Lindblad, StallgårdSigrid, Ramona Axelstorm

    Traditional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) emphasizes environmental impacts but often omits critical social and economic dimensions, limiting its capacity for holistic sustainability evaluation in the construction sector. This paper introduces the PESI-LCA framework (Product Environmental and Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment), which integrates environmental, social, and economic metrics into a structured, industry-ready method for comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment. Drawing on 38 interviews across two European companies involved in building manufacturing, this study compares LCA adoption and outcomes. Company Y, applying PESI-LCA, reduced CO₂ emissions by ≈15%, improved energy efficiency by 10%, and achieved ≈8% cost savings through sustainable sourcing and process optimization. In contrast, Company X, lacking a structured LCA approach, failed to realize similar gains. The PESI-LCA framework extends LCA's utility in building manufacturing by identifying synergies across the triple bottom line and enabling alignment with emerging policy standards such as the EU Green Deal and CSRD. The findings also highlight the role of digital tools, such as AI-based tracking and supply chain analytics, as key enablers for broader PESI-LCA adoption within construction engineering contexts.

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  • Investigation of Elevated Temperature Strengths of Cold-Formed Austenitic Hollow Section Beams with a Web Hole

    Andy Prabowo, Jonathan Chen

    The steel structure is often used as a building structure because it makes the self-weight lighter than concrete while it has relatively high strength. However, the strength and performance of steel structures will deteriorate when caught in fire due to the rising room temperature. Such deterioration occurs in all types of metallic materials, including stainless steel. Until now, investigation on the performance of stainless steel structures at elevated temperatures is still limited, especially on the strength and performance of Square/Rectangular Hollow Section (SHS/RHS) beams. This study investigates the strength predictions for SHS/RHS beams at elevated temperatures dominated by pure bending failure. An additional web hole located at the mid-span was considered, which further deteriorated the SHS/RHS strengths. The investigation was limited to SHS/RHS beams fabricated from cold-formed austenitic (EN 1.4301) sheets. Data on cross-sectional strengths were obtained from numerical analyses using the finite element programme. Results from the numerical analyses exhibited strength deterioration as the temperature rose. Evaluation of the current strength predictions for the cold-formed SHS/RHS austenitic beams using the Direct Strength Method (DSM) showed conservative but not necessarily safe for the condition at elevated temperatures. The proposed modification led to more conservative and reliable, including for the condition at elevated temperatures.

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