Life Cycle Assessment of a building using Open-LCA software

Abstract

The Building Construction industry has high energy consumption and is the major contributor for the environmental impacts like ozone depletion, Green House Gas emissions, Carbon foot print etc. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings is a method to evaluate the environmental impacts generated by building throughout its life cycle. This paper presents a case study of a G + 5 residential building in a metropolitan city of India and determines the impacts on the environment resulting from the construction phase using Open-LCA software. The Life Cycle Assessment software gives the impacts caused on the environment due to all components and the materials used in construction. The common building materials used in construction are clay brick, aggregates, cement, and steel. Therefore, this paper evaluates the environmental impact by using common building materials and alternate building materials. The comparative results of reduction in environmental impact are presented and attempted to develop sustainable building construction.