USGBC Explores LCA Options for LEED

Environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) is often tagged as a solution to many technical shortcomings of LEED®. On September 29, 2004, with support from Wayne Trusty, President of the Athena™ Sustainable Materials Institute, USGBC convened a meeting of industry groups and LCA database and tool developers to establish a plan for incorporating LCA into LEED. USGBC is also using this process to engage trade associations, who have expressed concern over being excluded from the development and management of LEED. Any integration of LCA into LEED will require careful management to avoid overwhelming users familiar with the current system of credits—hence, both short-term and long-term strategies may be created. It will also be important to manage expectations, especially for those who believe that incorporating LCA is a panacea for all of LEED’s woes: “Just getting LCA in doesn’t solve all the problems,” stated Trusty. He points out, however, that LCA can improve on some of the prescriptive requirements in LEED, which do not necessarily ensure the desired environmental performance.