Life Cycle Costing Methodology for Sustainable Construction

Abstract

There has been a pressing need to consider lifelong building costs and spread awareness about the life cycle cost of a building in the construction sector. Before 1970s, most of the clients’, contractors’ and developers’ decisions were solely based on the initial capital cost with no consideration of the entire life cycle cost of the building. If the cost of a building is estimated considering its entire life, approximately 70% portion is required for operational aspects. This approach of focusing only on the initial cost has failed to give the best value for money to the client in the long term. In this research, questionnaire-survey method is utilized to understand the awareness level and importance of different tangible and intangible costs of the construction over its useful life amongst the construction community. List of critical factors affecting life cycle cost of a building was extracted through an extensive literature survey. The questionnaire survey was prepared by incorporating the most significant parameters and circulated amongst the stakeholders consisting of respondents working at various hierarchical positions in the construction industry. The factors were ranked based on weightages obtained through Relative Importance Index (RII) methodology. The data analysis showed that the top 5 costs which should definitely be considered in life cycle costing are construction cost, Land Acquisition and associated cost, Design team fees and associated cost, Operation & Maintenance Cost and Taxes. Respondents also agreed that the life cycle costing methodology would provide a better and comprehensive estimate of the building cost as a whole and would be crucial in decision making. Incorporating life cycle costing in the design and planning phase would significantly help engineers as well as contractors to focus on the most important cost parameters. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that a lower emphasis is still given to cost factors related to environment. It needs to be emphasized that a comprehensive cost estimate for a project can only be obtained by incorporating sustainability aspects. Thus, a LCC framework considering all important cost parameters would further improve the process of selection of the most cost-effective alternative, as well as significantly increase sustainability in construction projects.