Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings is gradually evolving in Europe from a voluntary tool to a mandatory regulatory requirement, changing the approach to design, material selection, and calculating the true cost of a building over its entire service life.
This is discussed in an analytical report by the Ukrainian engineering and construction company Rauta, published on September 20, 2026.
According to data cited by the company from the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2025–2026, the construction and operation of buildings account for nearly 50% of global material extraction and about 37% of global carbon dioxide emissions. This is drawing increased attention from investors and designers not only to the initial construction costs but also to a building’s environmental impact over decades of operation.
LCA assesses the environmental impact of a building or a specific material from the extraction of raw materials through production, transportation, construction, operation, repair, demolition, and final recycling or disposal.
The methodology involves analyzing global warming potential, energy and water consumption, emissions to air, water, and soil, as well as waste generation. In Ukraine, this approach is based, in particular, on the international standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 and the European standard EN 15978.
According to Rauta, applying LCA as early as the design stage allows architects and engineers to compare alternative solutions not only in terms of price or thermal insulation performance, but also in terms of their total carbon footprint.
This makes it possible to change materials or structural solutions even before construction begins, when making adjustments to the project is significantly less expensive. LCA can also improve a building’s rating during certification under international systems such as LEED, BREEAM, and DGNB.
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), which contain verified data on a specific material’s environmental impact, are a key component of such analysis. Integrating this information into a BIM model allows for the automatic recalculation of the environmental performance metrics for the entire project following design changes.
According to Rauta, LCA calculations utilize both universal software solutions such as SimaPro, Sphera LCA, and openLCA, as well as specialized construction systems like Athena Impact Estimator and Preoptima, along with Revit add-ins such as One Click LCA, Tally, and Beacon.
The application of this methodology also changes the criteria for selecting building materials. Preference is given to solutions with lower embodied carbon, a long service life, the ability to be repaired or replaced without interrupting the building’s operation, as well as the potential for reuse or recycling.
Rauta notes that, based on these criteria, steel load-bearing and enclosure structures can offer a number of advantages due to their lower weight, reduced costs for foundations and transportation, and the ability to recycle steel and reuse metal structures, profiled sheeting, sandwich panels, and facade elements.
Changes in European regulations are becoming a particularly important factor for the Ukrainian construction market.
The EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) (EU) 2024/1275 provides for the gradual introduction of accounting for the total carbon footprint of new buildings throughout their entire life cycle. Starting in 2028, the Global Warming Potential (GWP) must be included in the energy performance certificates for large new buildings with an area exceeding 1,000 square meters, and starting in 2030—for all new buildings.
In Ukraine, there is currently no mandatory requirement to conduct LCA calculations, so the methodology is primarily used in projects involving international clients or funding.
At the same time, Order No. 168 of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development, dated February 6, 2025, which establishes requirements for nearly zero-energy buildings, lays the groundwork for a gradual transition from assessing energy efficiency alone to a broader life-cycle assessment.
At Rauta, they believe that European integration and post-war reconstruction could serve as additional incentives for the widespread adoption of LCA in Ukraine, as international financial organizations and donors are increasingly focusing on projects that meet European standards for energy efficiency and sustainable construction.
Companies that begin using LCA even before mandatory regulatory requirements are introduced can gain advantages in the form of lower operating costs, better preparedness to attract international financing, and faster adaptation to future European regulations.
A separate tool is Life Cycle Costing (LCC), which assesses not the environmental impact but the total cost of owning a building over its life cycle. Combining LCA and LCC allows investors to simultaneously evaluate the environmental consequences and long-term financial costs of various design solutions.
Thus, the approach to building assessment is gradually shifting from minimizing initial construction costs to analyzing the total cost and environmental impact over decades of operation.
Original source: Rauta article “How Building Life Cycle Assessment Is Changing the Approach to Design and Material Selection,” published on September 20, 2026. Rauta – Building Life Cycle Assessment
Schneider Electric has implemented a large-scale infrastructure project: 26 Ukrainian cities have received state-of-the-art equipment to improve the energy efficiency and operational reliability of their district heating systems.
Completing the project before the start of the 2025/2026 heating season allowed heating utilities to better prepare for peak loads. Thanks to the equipment provided, the cities were able to navigate the heating season more smoothly, reducing the risk of unscheduled outages and improving the overall efficiency of their systems.
As part of the project, Schneider Electric supplied control cabinets for pumps and blower mechanisms, equipped with state-of-the-art variable-frequency drives, to 26 cities in Ukraine across the Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Odesa, Kirovohrad, Kherson, Sumy, Poltava, and Kyiv regions.
A key element of the project was the implementation of variable-frequency drives to regulate the operation of pumping equipment at heat supply companies, which significantly improved the energy efficiency of the systems, reduced electricity consumption, optimized operating costs, and extended the service life of the equipment.
The solutions, based on Schneider Electric technologies, include fully equipped control cabinets for pumping equipment. The cabinets are protected against moisture and dust, allowing them to be installed directly in machine rooms, thereby reducing costs and simplifying installation.
The companies have gained tools for more flexible equipment management, reducing the load on the power grid, and improving the quality of heat supply services for consumers.
“This is not just about supplying equipment, but about a long-term investment in energy efficiency and the stability of heat supply in Ukraine. Already today, we are seeing how the implemented solutions are helping enterprises optimize energy consumption, improve system reliability, and lay the foundation for further modernization of the industry,” said Mykhailo Bubnov, CEO of Schneider Electric Ukraine.
The completed project serves as an example of collaboration aimed at implementing modern energy-efficient technologies and improving the operational efficiency of Ukraine’s utility companies.
Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy technologies that enhances efficiency and promotes sustainable development through the electrification, automation, and digitalization of industry, business, and residential spaces. The company’s technologies enable buildings, data centers, factories, infrastructure, and power grids to function as open, interconnected ecosystems, increasing productivity, resilience, and environmental sustainability. The company’s portfolio includes smart devices, software-defined architectures, artificial intelligence-based systems, digital services, and professional consulting services. With 160,000 employees and 1 million partners in over 100 countries, Schneider Electric consistently ranks among the world’s most sustainable companies.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY, EQUIPMENT, HEATING, MODERNIZATION, Schneider Electric
The ‘Kametstal’ plant, part of the “Metinvest” mining and metallurgical group and established at the facilities of the Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), has reduced electricity consumption in its converter shop by 6 kWh per ton of steel produced, from 27.4 to 21.4 kWh/t, through measures to reduce equipment load during periods between smelting runs.
According to the company, in particular, the downtime for unloading converter exhaust fan rotors has been cut in half. Operations have been organized on a rotational basis for each of the two converters, allowing equipment not involved in the current melt to be shut down and minimizing idle time, thereby ensuring a systematic reduction in electricity consumption.
In addition, electricity consumption by circulation pumps No. 1 and No. 2—which supply water to the converter gas cooling boilers on both operating converters—has been reduced by 1.2 kWh/t. As part of the investment project, frequency converters and modern controllers from Schneider were installed on CN-1 and CN-2. This allows for the automatic unloading of pumping equipment in accordance with the steelmaking process, thereby minimizing its electricity consumption between converter purges.
In the post-converter steel processing department, electricity consumption was reduced by 4.6 kWh/t through the phased implementation of effective engineering solutions to optimize metal heating. At the same time, the algorithm for automatic control of the metal heating process in the “furnace-ladle” unit was refined and improved by selecting the optimal combination of heating stages and heating rates.
Kametsal was established on the basis of PJSC Dniprovsky Coke Chemical Plant (DKCHZ) and PJSC Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (DMP). It is part of the Metinvest Group.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its facilities are located in Ukraine—in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions—as well as in European countries. The holding’s main shareholders are the SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
Dragon Capital plans to invest over $3 million in 2026 to develop energy-efficient solutions at its facilities, with a focus on solar power plants, Alexander Shmorgun, Director of Facility Management at Dragon Capital PM, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He emphasized that the company continues to increase equipment capacity not only in view of the upcoming heating season.
“All of our shopping centers have gas heating, except for the Piramida shopping center, where heating is provided by electricity. During emergency power outages this winter—which totaled about 300 hours in January—the temperature at Piramida dropped to 14 degrees on the coldest day of the month. “We purchased additional generators with sufficient capacity to power the entire heating system of this shopping center,” he said on the sidelines of UCSC TALKS on Wednesday in Kyiv.
According to him, backup equipment is now necessary even in the summer: “We have also installed additional generators at other retail and office properties. The new equipment enables the cooling system to operate, ensuring a comfortable environment for tenants and visitors.”
Among Dragon Capital’s shopping centers, a 1.5 MW rooftop solar power plant has already been installed at the Victoria Gardens shopping center in Lviv, and preparations are underway to install a 2.5 MW solar power plant at the Victoria Gardens shopping center in Kyiv (formerly the Karavan Outlet shopping center). In the near future, a solar power plant project is planned for the Piramida shopping center with a capacity of just 275 kW, due to roof space limitations.
“We are relying on generators; they are expected to meet 100% of the demand. In winter, the solar power plant can generate about 10–15% of its capacity for the shopping center’s needs, which reduces the load on the generators. In summer, these capacities are projected to cover a significant portion of the shopping center’s needs,” Shmorgun said.
A similar concept of energy independence is being implemented in logistics complexes and office buildings. In total, the company plans to invest over $3 million in this area by 2026.
Currently, Dragon Capital PM manages 25 commercial real estate properties, including 12 office properties, 6 retail properties (the Victoria Gardens shopping centers in Lviv and Kyiv, the Smart Plaza Obolon, Piramida, and Aladdin shopping centers, as well as the McDonald’s location in Lviv), and 7 logistics complexes. The entire portfolio spans over 570,000 square meters, making the company one of the largest players in the real estate market in Ukraine.
Where is the greatest potential for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and which construction technologies can maximise the energy efficiency of buildings?
The construction and operation of buildings accounts for 39% of global CO2 emissions, of which 28% comes from operational emissions and the energy required for heating, cooling, and power supply, and 11% comes from the manufacture of materials and construction.
In the EU, only 25% of buildings are considered energy efficient, while in Ukraine the share of such buildings is about 5%. Consequently, the greatest potential for reducing carbon emissions lies in improving the energy efficiency of buildings and reducing the use of fossil fuels in the manufacture of building materials.
The use of energy-efficient building envelopes in combination with technologies such as heat pumps, renewable heat and electricity sources is the best way to create energy-independent buildings and achieve climate neutrality.
Rauta offers energy-efficient technologies using Ruukki products to create energy-efficient buildings.
Thanks to the special configuration of the joints and the presence of an EPDM seal in the sandwich panel locks, maximum airtightness of q50≤1 m3/(m2h) is achieved and energy consumption is reduced by up to 20% compared to conventional panels.
Highly efficient building envelopes made of Ruukki sandwich panels not only reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions and operating costs, but also provide greater comfort for people, enhance the company’s image, and increase the value of the building.
The use of Ruukki’s energy-efficient sandwich panels with special accessories and additional joint sealing can reduce a building’s energy consumption by up to 30%.
Green steel products
In 2023, Ruukki became the first company in the world to start producing sandwich panels and ventilated facade cladding from green steel, which is produced using hydrogen, electricity, and biogas instead of fossil fuels. The residual product of this production process is water, not carbon dioxide.
For facades and roofs that will be used in highly aggressive environments, Ruukki offers special Hiarc and Pural coatings, which provide excellent resistance to ultraviolet radiation, have increased resistance to dirt and scratches, and are also capable of reducing the heating temperature of the surface of enclosing structures.
Under the same conditions, energy-reflective coatings heat up 23% less than conventional coatings. This further reduces the amount of energy required to heat or cool rooms.
Rauta’s solution is a rooftop solar power plant that includes an enclosure made of Ruukki roof sandwich panels and modern monocrystalline solar panels with a set of special mounts.
Currently, the return on investment in RoofSolar for commercial buildings is 3.5-4 years.
Today, construction expertise is measured not in tons of concrete and steel, but in how little the construction and operation of buildings affect the environment. Improving construction technologies and using more energy-efficient materials and structures are essential steps for developers to take to preserve the planet.
The State of Serbia has signed an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to receive a loan of €50 million. The funds will be used to modernize centralized heating systems and improve their energy efficiency in various cities across the country.
The project aims to reduce energy consumption and harmful emissions, as well as operating costs for heat supply companies. The authorities emphasize that both institutions and ordinary consumers will feel the benefits.
As noted by Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, the signed agreement confirms Serbia’s strong commitment to the “green transition.” According to him, the project involves the reconstruction of heating substations, replacement of pipelines, installation of automation systems, and in some cases, the transition to environmentally friendly energy sources such as biomass or solar collectors.
Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic added that the implementation of the project will ensure stable and high-quality heat supply in winter and will also help reduce dependence on imported energy sources.
The project will be part of a broader program to modernize municipal utilities, which the EBRD has already supported in the past. According to preliminary estimates, the modernization will reduce energy consumption by 25-30% in the upgraded systems.
EBRD representatives said they consider Serbia a key partner in the Balkans and will continue to finance sustainable projects in the energy, transport, and infrastructure sectors.
Source: https://t.me/
