State of the art report - use of life cycle assessment methods and tools

Abstract

―Low Resource consumption buildings and construction by use of LCA in design and decision making (LoRe-LCA)‖ is a project within the EU-FP 7. The aim is to contribute to an increased use of Life cycle analysis (LCA) as a method to gather, analyse, valuate and document comprehensive information on buildings and constructions. The specific focus of LoRe-LCA is on building’s resource consumption (water, primary raw materials, energy, land) and waste generation. Work package 2 is dedicated to collect LCA projects and initiatives and to compare the use of LCA for assessing the environmental performance of buildings in (some) EU countries. From this evidence should derive what is meaningful and useful for practice of LCA in the construction sector as well as what are chances and barriers for a broader uptake. Life cycle assessment is a tool to systematically evaluate the environmental impacts and aspects of a product, a service, a production system or a service system through all stages of its life cycle. Concerning buildings and construction work the whole life cycle of a building or a construction is considered and impacts of all life cycle stages are assessed. In construction practice energy certifications have gained a lot of attendance because energy certification is demanded by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in all member states of the EU. This means that the energy consumption of a building has to be calculated (heating, cooling and ventilation) and is passed on to the building or apartment owner. Thus much attention also of national and regional policies is focussed on the energy consumption of buildings, e.g. subsidies are granted on the energy consumption during the use phase of a building.