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The construction industry, contributing to about 9% of the European Union's GDP, has played a significant influential role in the development of the energy strategy of Europe and is also anticipated to be an important contributor in its successful implementation (EC, 2016). Holistic sustainability assessment tools that are able to evaluate and optimise the environmental performance of construction materials and buildings are considered a key for the development of advanced building designs and use of sustainable building materials and elements and green energy- efficient systems that will raise high the sustainability level of the European built environment. The aim of this work is the thorough explanation of the standardised LCA methodology, and the introduction of the approach of EcoHestia, a comprehensive building sustainability assessment tool. In view of that, the current legislation addressing the construction industry, as well as the state-of-the- art Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools that are used for the sustainability assessment and optimisation of construction materials and buildings are also presented. Furthermore, through the employment of EcoHestia, the environmental impact of a case study building is defined, also providing a detailed breakdown of the contribution of each construction material in the overall environmental performance of the building. The analysis of the results has not only determined on the construction materials of the building that are most harmful to the natural resources and the environment, but also showcased the effectiveness and added value of utilizing this approach in moving forward towards a more sustainable green building sector.

The construction industry, being the backbone of the European economy, has played a significant influential role in the development of the energy strategy of Europe and is also anticipated to be an important contributor in its successful implementation. Holistic sustainability assessment tools that are able to evaluate and optimise the environmental performance of construction materials and buildings are considered a key for the development of advanced building designs and use of sustainable building materials and elements and green energy- efficient systems that will raise high the sustainability level of the European built environment. The aim of this work is to present the current legislation addressing the construction industry, as well as the state-of-the- art Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools that are used for the sustainability assessment and optimisation of construction materials and buildings. In view of that, the standardised LCA methodology, and the approach of EcoHestia, a comphrehensive building sustainability assessment tool, are discussed. Through the employment of EcoHestia, the environmental impact of a case study building is defined, also providing a detailed breakdown of the contribution of each construction material in the overall environmental performance of the building. The analysis of the results has not only determined on the construction materials of the building that are most harmful to the natural resources and the environment, but also showcased the effectiveness and added value of utilizing this approach in moving forward towards a more sustainable green building sector.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.16.3.16172

Energy performance certificates are being utilized through the European Union Member States to document and asses the energy performance of the building stock, while they are used as measures to investigate and adopt policies that would lower the final energy consumption and environmental footprint. After several years of implementation, the current EPC schemes have enlighten the domain energy efficiency in the building sector, but at the same time they have been identified with several challenges and deficiencies that deteriorate the quality of the results. This study performed under the H2020 project "Next-generation Dynamic Digital EPCs for Enhanced Quality and User Awareness (D^2EPC)", aims to analyze the quality and weaknesses of the current EPC schemes and aspires to identify the technical challenges that currently exist, setting the grounds for the next generation dynamic EPCs. The present work reveals that current EPCs schemes are based on a cradle-to-gate rationale, completing their mission after the certificate to the building user, overlooking the user's behavior and the actual energy performance of the building that might change dynamically within time. In this study, the idea of the dynamic EPCs is introduced, a certificate that will allow the monitoring of the actual performance of buildings and the users' behavior profiles on a regular basis. The introduction of novel indicators and the integration of BIM and GIS are also discussed.