Building Upcycling vs. Building Reconstruction: a Life Cycle Valuation for investment decisions

Decision-making processes concerning investments in building upcycling vs. building reconstruction of the existing stock concern different scales: material/component/system, whole building, urban scale, and civil engineering works and and EC should be considered as hidden components of building value and, thus, internalized into investment decision-making processes under a circular perspective. Therefore, this contribution aims to present the first simulation of a methodological proposal to evaluate two alternative investment projects (a residential building upcycling vs. a reconstruction scenario) by internalizing environmental components in the financial Discounted Cash-flow Analysis (DCFA). From a life cycle perspective, the global cost and the «global benefit» are modeled using the NPV indicator calculation. The results highlight the weight of the environmental cost items from a financial perspective and the capability of environmental input (EE and CO2 emissions) to influence the results, thus orienting investment decisions and public policy-making towards sustainable design.