PESI-LCA in Building Manufacturing: A Triple-Bottom-Line Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Built Environment

Traditional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) emphasizes environmental impacts but often omits critical social and economic dimensions, limiting its capacity for holistic sustainability evaluation in the construction sector. This paper introduces the PESI-LCA framework (Product Environmental and Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment), which integrates environmental, social, and economic metrics into a structured, industry-ready method for comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment. Drawing on 38 interviews across two European companies involved in building manufacturing, this study compares LCA adoption and outcomes. Company Y, applying PESI-LCA, reduced CO₂ emissions by ≈15%, improved energy efficiency by 10%, and achieved ≈8% cost savings through sustainable sourcing and process optimization. In contrast, Company X, lacking a structured LCA approach, failed to realize similar gains. The PESI-LCA framework extends LCA's utility in building manufacturing by identifying synergies across the triple bottom line and enabling alignment with emerging policy standards such as the EU Green Deal and CSRD. The findings also highlight the role of digital tools, such as AI-based tracking and supply chain analytics, as key enablers for broader PESI-LCA adoption within construction engineering contexts.