Environmental Impact of Constructions: LCA and LCC

Adrian Ciutina, Ph.D.

WHAT IS AN LCA?
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology for assessing environmental aspects and the potential associated with a product by:
compiling an inventory of data input and output of a system; For an LCA an inventory of all the relevant energy and material inputs as well as the environmental releases need to be compiled; assessing potential environmental impacts associated with the input and output. The (relevant) potential environmental impacts associated with the inputs and releases need to be evaluated; interpretation of results in relation to objectives. Finally the results of the inventory analysis and the impact assessment should be evaluated and followed by an interpretation and regard the (un-)certainities and conclusions.

WHAT IS AN LCA?
LCA studies the potential impact of products from raw material acquisition through production process, use and disposal (cradle-to-grave). The life cycle in the building industry

General categories of environmental impact to be considered include the use of resources, human health and environmental consequences (ISO 14040).

LCA AND BUILDINGS

The interest of environmental evaluation of buildings is huge. European buildings are responsible for 50% use of the resources, 40% of final energy consumption, and produce 25% of the waste in a city Vision 2030 & Strategic Research Agenda - Focus Area Cities and Buildings More than 50% of all materials extracted from earth are transformed into construction materials and products
Report of the taskforce on sustainable construction, Lead Market Initiative

LCA AND BUILDINGS

A building is not an easy defined product with a simple onedimensional use that can easily be expressed in a single functional unit. It is rather a complicated system of products, with complex functions and a multitude of users. Moreover, the different building elements are likely to have different product lifecycles. This makes the resulting working life of the building hard to predict. Because the LCA represents a holistic approach, the LCA of a building represents a very complex task. There are a lot of uncertainties regarding:
its use end-of-life

maintenance of the building

The actual behaviour of the users with regard to cooling, heating and ventilation can lead to a very different energy consumption, as compared with the predicted one.

LCA AND BUILDINGS

Market value of a building