What are the best practices for using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in building design?

Best practices for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in building design involve early integration into the design process, ensuring a comprehensive scope and accurate, transparent data. Conduct benchmarking and comparative analyses, considering regional variations for context-specific assessments. Integrate LCA into an iterative design process, regularly revisiting assessments for optimization. Communicate results to stakeholders, fostering collaboration, and comply with regulatory standards for a balanced and sustainable building design.

Selecting an LCA tool is a nuanced decision that requires careful consideration of technical, financial, and practical aspects. Integration with existing design workflows, adherence to standards, accessibility, and fostering a culture of learning are pivotal. Beyond technicalities, humanizing the process involves cultivating a shared commitment among design teams toward creating structures that not only excel in structural integrity but also embody environmental sustainability.

Early Integration: Integrate LCA considerations early in the design process to identify opportunities for environmental improvement from the outset.Define System Boundaries: Clearly define the system boundaries, including raw material extraction, manufacturing, construction, use, and end-of-life stages. This helps in providing a comprehensive assessment.Data Accuracy: Use accurate and up-to-date data for the life cycle inventory. Reliable data ensures the validity of the assessment.

1- Break down the items that requires LCA study whether it will be an equipment, system or a civil item (paint - tiles - etc..). 2- The LCA differs depending on the item and shall be studied separately for each. 3- In your study you should compare between the initial cost of the execution and the running cost (if any) which normally includes consumption, maintenance (preventive or else), spare parts (if applicable) and accordingly the selection shall depend on the comparison result. 4- In some cases, you should always consider the replacement of the equipment, system or the civil item (paint - tiles - etc..) due to the non availability for its parts by the end of its LC.

In my experience while studying PPP tender with 25 years of LC, for schools project the main concern was the selection of the best AC system between split Units which has a low initial cost but high running cost or using a chilled water system which has a very high initial cost but low running cost, and the weighted factor was the LC factor which gave advantage to the split unit system that has a short LC but low replacement cost.

Communication of LCA information is critical because LCA’s are full of complex and complicated data. Consider the following things: - Determine the biggest contributors to GHG emissions - Isolate the data in relation to averages from other categories - crate graphics that communicate show how much those big commuters affect the overall impact.

Make use of reference data, case studies and set relevant WLC targets Avoid abortive design costs by accessing data from free sources on building archetypes and case studies which may apply to your project. Use relevant standards, such as the RIBA 2030 climate challenge or the LETI climate emergency design guide to set a WLC (whole life carbon) target to which your project team should work. Don’t forget to use the target as part of decision making!!