Overview of Whole Building Life-Cycle Assessment for Green Building Certification and Ecodesign through Industry Surveys and Interviews

Abstract

Whole Building Life-Cycle Assessment is a methodology whose importance has been steadily growing in the construction industry, as a reliable way to assess the environmental impacts of a building through its whole life-cycle. Life-Cycle Assessment is used by designers, architects, manufacturers, and consultants for various purposes: eco-design, the achievement of Green Building certifications, including DGNB DK, and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). This paper will examine the current advantages and challenges of performing Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) calculations in the building sector based on the results of 41 survey responses and 110 interviews conducted between 2016 and 2017. The survey indicated that 86.5% of respondents believe that the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the automation of Life-Cycle Assessment calculations will allow LCA to be used effectively during the building design process. Also, according to our interviewees, the integration of LCA and LCC is a considered valuable approach for building sustainability but it is mainly driven by green building certifications.