Investigating building sustainability by applying sensitivity analysis of impact factors during design stage

According to the European Union report, 40% of the total energy was consumed in the building sector. Over 80% of energy was consumed during building's operational stage. In addition, energy embodied in construction materials is also huge, e.g., producing cement is an energyintensive process. Therefore, a proper building design help reduce building's environmental impact during its lifecycle. Due to the uncertainty of the relationship between individual design parameters and building performance, the extent of impact cannot be well-understood. In this study, main design parameters that affect the building performance are analyzed based on a BIM platform. Simulation of energy consumption is run for different scenarios in terms of operational energy consumption. Energy embodied in typical construction materials are calculated for each scenario. Sensitivity analysis is applied to find the extent of impact for the selected design parameters in terms of both operational and embodied energy. It is found that although the material of windows have highest energy coefficient, windows are the most energy-efficient and important parameter to be considered in term of life cycle energy consumption.