Environmental impacts of construction materials use: a life cycle perspective

Abstract

To place construction on a truly sustainable path the green building movement needs a method which goes beyond subjective checklists of green features. Such a method must provide objective guidelines for a comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts of a product (or service). The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) concept previously known as Life Cycle Analysis has emerged as one of the most appropriate tools for assessing product-related environmental impacts and for supporting an effective integration of environmental aspects in industry, business and the economy. LCA is distinguished from Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in that whereas the former involves environmental accounting the later is concerned with economic value. The primary application of LCA in the built environment professions is to inform design decisions, in particular, provide quantitative data to guide the selection of construction material, construction component and building system combinations which will reduce the life cycle environmental impacts of a built facility. While the decisions made throughout the building life cycle will influence the impact it can have on the environment, materials choices made in the pre-use phase commit the major environment impacts which occur in the use phase. Environmental concerns, for instance potential contributions to Climate Change must therefore be addressed side by side with more traditional concerns such as thermal comfort, health, safety, cost and maintenance from the planning and design stages