Life Cycle Assessment of a Residential Building During Planning Stage to Forecast Its Environmental Impact

Abstract

India is a rapidly growing economy witnessing continuous growth in the housing sector and living standards. The main focus of construction practices still remains on the architectural aspects of the buildings, largely unconcerned with their environmental impacts. The current thrust of concern for building sector, especially in developing countries, is to assess the environmental impact of buildings in a quantifiable way for implementing sustainable measures and achieving sustainability. Lifecycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive tool that is used worldwide to assess the environmental performance of any product or a process. This paper assesses the environmental impact of a residential house at planning stage on the basis of lifecycle assessment (LCA) considering various stages of building like construction, operation (for service life) and demolition, and identifies the hot-spots in the form of building components, materials, and stages.