This research focused on assessing the environmental impacts of buildings in a comprehensive way beyond just carbon dioxide emissions. The researchers defined six categories of environmental impacts: abiotic depletion, global warming, ozone layer depletion, acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation. They compared two building design options and found that considering all six categories led to different conclusions than just looking at global warming alone. When looking at all six impacts, the first design alternative was found to be better, showing that evaluating multiple environmental impacts is vital for accurate assessments.