The Life Cycle Lab at UW’s College of Built Environments leads research to advance life cycle assessment (LCA) data, methods and approaches to enable optimization of materials, buildings and infrastructure. Our work is structured to inform impactful policies and practices that support global decarbonization efforts. We envision a transformed, decarbonized building industry – better buildings for a better planet.
Our group is led by Professor Kate Simonen. Since arriving at UW in 2009, she has conducted research and spearheaded initiatives focused on accelerating the transformation of the building sector to radically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to materials (also known as embodied carbon) used in buildings and infrastructure. From June 2010 until April 2024 she directed the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) as it was hosted in UW’s College of Built Environments. The core of CLF’s work has been to lay essential foundations for understanding embodied carbon: a framework for comprehensive strategy, rigorous analysis, and transparent reporting that can support design tools, effective policy, and collective action.
In April 2024, two new entities were created to expand the program’s influence and impact: the Carbon Leadership Forum launched as an independent nonprofit organization and the newly named Life Cycle Lab was created to support the next generation of researchers and pursue critical embodied carbon research with an increased focus on academic publications. Learn more about this transition via this announcement.
Life Cycle Lab members include professional research staff, research assistants, students advised by Prof. Simonen, undergraduate interns and student assistants. Many of our members are formally affiliated with the Carbon Leadership Forum and the two organizations continue to actively collaborate developing strategies and executing aligned initiatives.
Projects associated with Life Cycle Lab include:
The CBE Inspire Fund Awardees for the 2024 cycle have been selected! Their project names and team members are outlined below. Title: Mycelium Grow Lab for Student-led Research Team: Gundula Proksch (Associate Professor, Architecture), Tyler Sprague (Associate Professor, Architecture) Title: Exhibition of the works of OUR: Office of (Un)certainty Research Team: Vikram Prakash (Professor, Architecture) Title: Emergence, Resilience, and Future(s) of Urban Informality in Seattle Team: Julie Johnson (Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture), Manish Chalana (Associate Professor, Urban Design and Planning)…
Ashayeri, M., & Abbasabadi, N. (2024). Unraveling energy justice in NYC urban buildings through social media sentiment analysis and transformer deep learning. Energy and Buildings, 306, 113914-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2024.113914
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Abstract
This study explores the intricate relationship between human sentiment on social media data, herein tweet posts on X platform, urban building characteristics, and the socio-spatial dynamics of New York City (NYC) boroughs. Leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, particularly sentiment analysis, augmented by the capabilities of transformer deep learning models, RoBERTa, the study places particular emphasis on the term ‘Stay-at-Home’ to encapsulate the pronounced shift in building occupancy during the pandemic's inaugural year. This focus intertwines with pivotal terms like ‘Energy Bill’ and ‘HVAC’, shedding light on their interconnected implications. The sentiment analysis leverages data from New York City's PLUTO and the Department of Energy's LEAD databases to emotional disparities connected to urban building characteristics as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors. This analytical approach unravels prevailing public emotions and extends the discussion to include energy justice concerns, viewing them through the lens of the city's built infrastructure. The research uncovers profound disparities in the built environment and the allocation of resources in NYC, highlighting the critical need to embrace a spatial justice framework for a sustainable future. This research can aid designers, planners, and policymakers in their efforts to promote equitable and inclusive urban development.
College of Built Environments Ph.D. researcher Judy Bowes has been featured in a story, entitled “New research aims to reduce fatal bird collisions on campus” on UW News highlighting her project work. The video below dives into her work. KOMO News also published a related story. Read the full story on UW News here.
Alberti, Marina. (2023). Cities of the Anthropocene: urban sustainability in an eco-evolutionary perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 379:20220264. 20220264.
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Abstract
Cities across the globe are driving systemic change in social and ecological systems by accelerating the rates of interactions and intensifying the links between human activities and Earth's ecosystems, thereby expanding the scale and influence of human activities on fundamental processes that sustain life. Increasing evidence shows that cities not only alter biodiversity, they change the genetic makeup of many populations, including animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms. Urban-driven rapid evolution in species traits might have significant effects on socially relevant ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, pollination, water and air purification and food production. Despite increasing evidence that cities are causing rapid evolutionary change, current urban sustainability strategies often overlook these dynamics. The dominant perspectives that guide these strategies are essentially static, focusing on preserving biodiversity in its present state or restoring it to pre-urban conditions. This paper provides a systemic overview of the socio-eco-evolutionary transition associated with global urbanization. Using examples of observed changes in species traits that play a significant role in maintaining ecosystem function and resilience, I propose that these evolutionary changes significantly impact urban sustainability. Incorporating an eco-evolutionary perspective into urban sustainability science and planning is crucial for effectively reimagining the cities of the Anthropocene.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis’.
Judy Bowes was featured on The Daily with a story about her Bird Friendly UW project. An excerpt is below. “UW researchers estimate that buildings on campus are responsible for 10,000 to 15,000 bird deaths, with up to 1 billion deaths occurring from bird-building collisions each year. Judy Bowes’ research will provide insight into what UW’s contribution to that total is. Bowes, a graduate student in the College of Built Environments, has dedicated the past year toward analyzing how dangerous…
Wang, Y., Hu, S., Lee, H. W., Tang, W., Shen, W., & Qiang, M. (2023). To Achieve Goal Alignment by Inter-Organizational Incentives: A Case Study of a Hydropower Project. Buildings (Basel), 13(9), 2258–. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092258
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Abstract
Although the use of incentives has been widely recognized as an effective project management tool, its application still needs specific exploration. Existing research on incentives mainly focuses on intra-organizational incentives, lacking systematic research with empirical evidence from the perspective of the inter-organizational level. To fill this research gap, this study conducted an in-depth investigation into the application and impacts of inter-organizational incentives by studying a typical case of a hydropower project. In this case, a series of innovative inter-organizational incentives, involving a multiple contractual incentive scheme concerning schedule, quality, safety, as well as environmental performance, is applied. Using a mixed methodology that included a document review, a questionnaire survey, and interviews, this case study revealed that inter-organizational incentives could effectively help promote goal alignment, stimulate cooperative inter-organizational relationships, and improve project performance. This research developed a novel classification of inter-organizational incentives and emphasized the importance of non-contractual and informal incentives, which were ignored in previous research. The results further highlight that while incentivized organizations generally value incentives according to their monetary intensity, their prioritization of goals is determined by various factors. Therefore, to achieve project goal alignment, the optimization of incentive schemes should comprehensively consider a variety of influencing factors rather than merely focusing on monetary intensity. These findings will help both academic researchers and industrial practitioners design and execute effective inter-organizational incentives for superior project performance, especially for those projects that pursue high sustainable performance with safety and environmental performance included.
Keywords
inter-organizational incentive; inter-organizational relationship; multiple incentive; motivation; goal alignment; relational contracting; contractual incentive; environment incentive; environment performance; project performance
Depari, Catharina D.A., & Lindell, Michael K. (2023). “Moving or not?”: Factors affecting community responses to environmental disruption. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 95, 103898.
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Abstract
Disputes between government authorities and high-risk communities about community relocation following disasters are not new. Nevertheless, there remains a limited understanding of factors affecting people's decisions about whether to relocate from a hazard zone, particularly in the Indonesian context. Through the experience of the Pelemsari community, a culturally distinct community near Mt. Merapi that once was located less than five km from the volcano crater, this article attempts to explain why the Pelemsari community differed from neighboring communities by abandoning its previous resistance to relocation after an unprecedented eruption in 2010. To explain this behavior change, the study used hermeneutic phenomenology, a methodology rooted in the people-place relationship and specifically used to unfold the meaning structures of a lived experience. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, field observations, and document reviews. The results showed that people's strong place attachment affected residents' decision to uphold unity with their neighbors, select a relocation site that is outside the hazard zone but close to the former location, and engage in collective action that pressured the government to issue legal certificates of their former homes. These results show how a deep understanding of people's place attachment can make it possible to achieve a successful community relocation.
Keywords
Post-disaster displacement; Community relocation; Place attachment; Cultural attachment; Risk perception
Research Interests: urban sustainability and resiliency, hybridized built environments, wetland city and wetland center typologies, nature-based solutions and scalable blue-green-gray infrastructure, human ecology and urban informatics in urban design
Research Interests: urban eco-evolutionary dynamics, urban complexity, landscape ecology, scenario planning, and nature’s contributions to people/nature-based solutions