Life cycle sustainability assessment analysis of different concrete construction techniques for residential building in Malaysia

Purpose Aspects of the lifecycle sustainability of modular and prefabricated construction remain unexplored. In particular, the characteristics of various concrete techniques require further investigation. This study assessed three different construction techniques, namely, On-site concrete (OSC), Individual Panel System (IPS), and Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC). Methods The following environmental impact criteria were studied: greenhouse gas (GHG), ozone layer depletion (OLD), human toxicity (HT), fossil depletion (FD), and terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE). These were calculated using life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis. The total cost of each case studies was calculated using LCC and a social survey was also conducted using a questionnaire survey. The significance weights were incorporated into an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for use in multi-criteria decision making (MCDM: TOPSIS). Results PPVC was assessed as the best construction technique for most of the environmental criteria. It was 6%, 2%, and 6% lower than OSC in GHG, FD, and OLD, respectively. On the other hand, OSC was shown to be an economic method by 2.4% and 4% having lower cost than PPVC and IPS. Additionally, PPVC achieved the best value in Social-LCA. Conclusions Finally, since different concrete construction techniques were nominated as the best for each criterion, an assessment of multi-criteria was conducted. The results of MCDM showed that PPVC is the most sustainable method among the alternatives. Furthermore, two sensitivity analyses were performed to dispense with the human subjectivity involved in AHP.