# Insight from Review Articles of Life Cycle Assessment for Buildings
## 3 Results
### Findings of Qualitative Analysis
#### 3.2.3 Findings from Highly Cited Papers
(3) Strengthen the construction of BIM-LCA courses in the education sector, improve the training and incentive system in the enterprise sector, promote standard and resource support, and accelerates optimization tools for BIM-LCA, based on these, a virtuous cycle of \"talent cultivation-technology application--industry upgrading\" will be gradually formed. Extensive studies have been conducted to analyze environmental issues of buildings, but the social or cultural aspects were ignored. The main reason for this may be that the influence of social and cultural aspects is difficult to quantify since it faces challenges such as data collection and indicator design, which lead to the lack of standardized methods for social and cultural assessment. To address these issues, a multi-objective assessment including other assessment tools is required to increase the usefulness of building LCA for decision-making, and a multi-dimensional LCA framework of \"environment-society-culture\" can be constructed. 5. Circular economy principles, which focus on reducing waste, reusing materials, and recycling resources, are increasingly seen as critical to addressing climate change, promoting sustainability in the construction sector and achieving carbon neutrality. Therefore, circular economy principles offer a pathway to reduce waste and emissions, and LCA provides the tools to measure and optimize these efforts. In the construction sector, circular practices like modular construction [116] and recycling construction and demolition waste [109] can significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. However, the implementation of circular economy strategies faces several challenges. One major barrier is the lack of standardized protocols for measuring the environmental and economic benefits of such practices. For example, [PERSON] [97] pointed out the need for an embodied energy measurement protocol for buildings, which is essential for evaluating the true impact of circular practices. In addition, as mentioned by [PERSON] [110] in their review of 3D printing in construction, significant upfront investment in new technologies and infrastructure is required for transitioning to a circular economy. To address these challenges, approaches such as standardization, data availability, and technological integration will be crucial for their widespread adoption and success in achieving carbon neutrality, and the potential benefits offered by circular economy approaches, such as reducing material costs, lower emissions, and enhancing resource efficiency, make them a promising direction for future research and policy development. The high citation counts of these studies underscore their relevance and the urgent need for continued research and innovation in these areas. In summary, emphasis was put on embodied energy, LCA standardization, and passive/active features in early years (2009-2015), an increase in studies on 3D printing, modular construction, and BIM-LCA integration was observed in the subsequent years (2016-2019), and recent studies have been paid more attention on carbon neutrality, circular economy, and advanced technologies like digital twins and artificial intelligence (2020-2025). In addition, the following three aspects have faced persistent challenges in the development of LCA-B: (1) Data inconsistency and lack of standardization mainly due to varied methodologies, regional disparities, diverse software and databases and ISO standards adoption. (2) Traditional LCAs often prioritize environmental metrics (e.g., carbon emissions) while neglecting economic factors (e.g., supply chain resilience) or social factors (e.g., occupant well-being, cultural heritage), holistic assessments (environmental, economic, social) are needed. (3) Underrepresentation of developing regions and rural areas in LCA-B terms mainly due to the limited infrastructure for monitoring energy/water use, material flows, or waste practices in rural/developing contexts.