OVERVIEW
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. The methods are well developed, but there are blind spots.
The creator of life-cycle assessment famously stated, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” That’s important to keep in mind as you attempt to compare the impacts of two different building designs or two different products.
These resources about LCA help explain:
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what types of data are usually reliable in an LCA
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how to get the info you need from an environmental product declaration
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where LCA can go wrong
- the politics of LCA and how it relates to product and building certifications
IN-DEPTH
Filter results:
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More Comprehensive LCA Models for Buildings, Pavement
January 27, 2011News Brief
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Reuse or Build New? Group to Gather Hard Environmental Data
July 28, 2010News Brief
A report quantifying the respect impacts of value building reuse versus demolition and new construction-including life-cycle assessments (LCA) and examination of building materials and methods-is due to be released in 2011 by The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Green Building Services, and the Cascadia Green Building Council.
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Life-Cycle Assessment: Tracing a Product's Impacts
May 29, 2008Primer
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.
