The building life cycle is a concept in the building industry that covers the entire life cycle of a building, from its planning and operation through to renovation and demolition. For a long time, construction and funding policy has focused increasingly on the use phase of a building. The construction industry is one of the most resource-intensive sectors and is responsible for a large proportion of global CO2 emissions. In order to achieve the climate targets of the EU Green Deal, there needs to be a rethink, particularly when considering the building life cycle. This is because a large proportion of CO2 emissions are generated not only during use, but also during construction and dismantling, which is referred to as "gray energy". The life cycle of a building is now often divided into five phases, all of which should be reviewed and optimized in terms of sustainability: Planning and design, building and construction, operation and use, maintenance and renovation, and demolition or dismantling.
Digitalization holds enormous potential for the building industry with concepts such as the digital twin or BIM: the energy consumption and costs of a building can be digitally accessed, managed, organized and optimized in order to use resources responsibly in all phases of the building life cycle. The aedifion cloud platform also allows you to quickly and easily obtain a holistic operational picture of your building and digital twins of your facilities, which are valuable tools throughout the entire life cycle of a building.