Life-Cycle Assessment
Life-cycle assessment, or LCA, is the science of quantifying environmental impacts through the entire process of creating, transporting, using, and disposing of a product or material. Environmental impacts assessed include things like embodied carbon, smog-creation potential, and fossil fuel consumption.
For building professionals, LCA comes into play in two main ways. To understand the impacts of specific products, look to an environmental product declaration (EPD). To understand the impacts of an entire building, a whole-building LCA is required. Specialized tools are used to perform whole-building LCA.
Life-Cycle Assessment
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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Whole-Building Life-Cycle Assessment: Taking the Measure of a Green Building
Feature Article
Why we will never understand the true impact of our buildings—and how we should try to anyway
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The Product Transparency Movement: Peeking Behind the Corporate Veil
Feature Article
Manufacturers are offering more product information than ever, but how can we know what to trust?
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What’s an EPD? Environmental Product Declaration FAQs
Feature Short
We answer FAQs on EPDs, which allow manufacturers to disclose a product’s carbon footprint and other impacts.
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Wood, Concrete, and Steel—And Their Incomparable EPDs
Feature Short
Don’t expect the turf battles over sustainability of structural systems to be settled anytime soon by EPDs.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Life-Cycle Assessment: Tracing a Product's Impacts
Explainer
Life-cycle assessment—accounting for all of the environmental impacts of a product from its manufacture to its disposal—is a simple concept, but using it to compare products in practice can be difficult.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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With Early-Phase Carbon Tool, Designers Learn What Works
News Brief
ZeroGuide, a free tool from NBBJ, is about education as much as it is about modeling. It’s also a gateway to more refined approaches.
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New Baselines from Carbon Leadership Forum
News Brief
The Carbon Leadership Forum has updated its baseline data to keep pace with industry changes.
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Investors Will Use EPIC Tool to Decarbonize Existing Assets
News Brief
Galvanize Climate Solutions commissioned a custom version of EHDD’s software to locate real estate with financial and sustainability potential.
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4 Big Questions as Building Codes Consider Embodied Carbon
News Analysis
Beyond “buy clean” procurement policies, a newer race is on to limit embodied carbon through codes. But the fate of the effort is uncertain.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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The Urgency of Embodied Carbon and What You Can Do About It
Spotlight Report
Building materials emit massive amounts of carbon long before the lights go on. Here’s how thoughtful design can reduce global warming impact.
