Parameters related to building components’ life-cycle analysis in methods for buildings’ environmental performance assessment

Abstract

In this study, the integration of factors related to life cycle analysis and assessment of building materials and components in the context of widely used methods applied for the evaluation of buildings’ environmental performance is examined. The reviewed assessment systems are BREEAM, LEED, CASBEE, DGNB, HQE and SBTool, with the analysis being focused on their versions referring to new office buildings. Issues related to the content and type of indicators and criteria used for the evaluation of factors referring to life cycle assessment, as well as to the way these rating elements are introduced into the structure and the evaluation process of the aforementioned methods, are examined. In this context, the relative standards and the appropriate –if any– databases and tools mentioned within each method are also demonstrated. The results of this work are systematically presented. The analysis is complemented by the examination of the inclusion of life cycle assessment-related factors in Level(s), a common European framework currently under trial. The present study aims at contributing to the identification of similarities and differences and at highlighting the current trends among widely used buildings’ environmental performance rating systems with regard to the approach they adopt considering building components’ life cycle assessment.