Ashutosh

Sustainability requires that we think and act in terms of a  circular economy . ...yes massive inertia and complexity of the construction industry means that the way is very long. One step at a time would however make it happen. We can begin with the Life Cycle Costing of Buildings. This requires us to update both our knowledge base and skill sets. Many iterative cycles would be required for maturity but this should not deter us in making a small beginning. Specially when we have such intuitive features like forecasting sheet readily available in the newer version of Excel that industry uses day in and day out. Construction industry generates lots of data most of which is not used. What is usually used is for litigation and contract administration actions. Much of it is picked and chosen to make or break a case. With new data analysis features, making good use of Construction and maintenance data is easy. Appropriate databases may automatically be made to provide useful insights in

The raison d'etre of using Excel for designing/ decision making is that the solution is not a black box and professionals besides relating to basic principles can play with it through and create scenarios. Transparency of formulas and correlations when supported with basic visualizations however can authenticate decision making. Seeing is believing. Optimal solar passive design requires varying requirements.

Technological and other changes are forcing organizations to quickly modify their project design requirements. For example, the successful introduction of new technologies in the construction industry would require a fundamental change in which the preliminary cost and schedule estimates are made. Changes in the weights of various inputs that go into the preliminary estimate become an immediate requirement. Design cycle improvements require training teams interactively and process inputs improvement. Project stakeholders demand improvements in the deliverables and justifications of enhancements in the first costs even if the life cycle costing of the habitat goes down. Similarly, the technique illustrated in the solution may be used in changing indicator weights as needed. (The improvements and user demand would also push the green building norms and other sustainability indicators).