Acronyms
BIM	Building information modelling	$i$	material $i$
CO2	Carbon dioxide	LCA	Life cycle assessment
Em	Emergy	LCC	Life cycle cost
EM-LCA	Combination of emergy and LCA method	N	Nonrenewable resources
ELR	Environmental loading ratio	O&M	Operation and maintenance phase
ESI	Emergy sustainability index	R	Renewable resources
EYR	Emergy yield ratio	RC	Reinforced concrete
F	Emergy feedback	Y	Emergy yield
GHG	Greenhouse gas
Variables and parameters
$c_d$	Calorific value of diesel fuel (J)	$N_h$	Number of working hours per day of one employee (h)
$c_g$	Calorific value of gasoline (J)	$N_n$	Number of employees
$E_{C{O}_2-eq}$	Emission factor of the different building materials $i$ (kg/unit)	$S$	construction site surface (footprint) (m2)
$E_d$	Solar emergy of the diesel fuel consumed (seJ)	$t_c$	Construction time (year)
$E_e$	Solar emergy of the electricity required in the building construction, O&M and end-of-life phases (seJ)	${\mathrm{T}}_d$	Transformity of diesel fuel (seJ/unit)
$E_g$	Solar emergy of gasoline (seJ)	$T_e$	Transformity of electricity (seJ/unit)
$E_l$	Solar emergy equivalent of human labor (seJ)	${\mathrm{T}}_g$	Transformity of gasoline (seJ/unit)
$E_m$	Solar emergy of the building materials (seJ)	${\mathrm{T}}_l$	Transformity of labor (seJ/unit)
$E_{s,c}$	Solar emergy of the solar irradiation in the construction phase (seJ)	$T_{mi}$	Transformity of material $i$ (seJ/unit)
$E_{w,c}$	Solar emergy of the water consumed in the building demolition, construction and end-of-life phases (seJ)	$T_s$	Transformity of solar energy (seJ/unit)
$E_{w,o}$	Solar emergy of the water consumed in the building O&M phase (seJ)	$T_w$	Transformity of water (seJ/unit)
$G$	Gibbs free energy of water (J/g)	$t_o$	Total number of working days per year (day)
$I$	Annual amount of solar radiation ($\mathrm{J}/{\mathrm{m}}^2$)	$t_t$	Working days required in the life cycle process (day)
$G_{C{O}_2}$	Amount of CO2 emissions (kg)	$V_a$	Required water volume of one person per day (m3)
$M_d$	Quantity of diesel fuel consumed in the building life cycle (L)	$V$	Required water volume (m3)
$M_g$	Quantity of gasoline consumed in the building life cycle (L)	$W$	Quantity of electricity (kWh)
$M_i$	Quantity of material $i$	$\rho$	Water density (kg/m3)