How important is a life-cycle assessment?
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that provides information to building professionals, further assisting them to understand how to achieve environmental sustainability throughout the entire life cycle of a building project. LCA is a process that is progressively becoming more widely adopted in the context of national and international environmental regulations.
Are you legally obligated to acquire a life cycle assessment for your project? Technically, no.
However, a LCA helps both consumers and building-code officials make informed decisions during the whole life cycle of a building project. The results from a lifecycle assessment helps make more informed decisions about both human health and wellbeing and the environmental impacts of the products, processes and activities involved in developing a sustainable project.
The assessment takes into account a variety of aspects throughout the project lifecycle, starting from the production of raw building materials to the disposal of products, including recycling. A life cycle assessment can be used to inform variety of processes including:
- Product development and innovation
- Green marketing and reporting
- Sustainability strategy development
- Sustainable procurement
The team at Certified Energy specialise in providing information to building professionals helping them to understand the energy usage and various other environmental effects of their project. Give us a call today for more information on how you can acquire a Life Cycle Assessment for your project!
Sources:
http://nbis.org/nbisresources/life_cycle_assessment_thinking/guide_life_cycle_assessment_bcorp.pdf
