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Whole building life cycle assessment: Tool calculates climate impact of buildings

Whole building life cycle assessment: Tool calculates climate impact of buildings

There is an increasing focus on demanding sustainability assessment of buildings, both politically and in the industry. The introduction of DGNB certification and the newly introduced voluntary sustainability class, testifies to that. The latter is expected to be included in the building regulations. Both require life cycle assessments (LCA).

Whole building life cycle assessment: Tool calculates climate impact of buildings

There is an increasing focus on demanding sustainability assessment of buildings, both politically and in the industry. The introduction of DGNB certification and the newly introduced voluntary sustainability class, testifies to that. The latter is expected to be included in the building regulations. Both require life cycle assessments (LCA).

LCA is an important part of assessing the environmental sustainability of buildings. Researchers at BUILD have developed the LCAbyg tool that can calculate the environmental profiles of buildings based on the choice of different materials and design principles.

Included in the calculations are the sourcing of raw materials, the production of building materials, energy and resource consumption in operation and maintenance, as well as the disposal and possible recycling of building parts and building materials.

It can therefore be valuable for the construction operators to use the tool in connection with the early stages of construction or when renovating.

LCAbyg has about 4,500 registered users and 400-600 active users each month. Experience from the various research projects is continuously implemented in LCAbyg.

Learn more about LCAbyg here.

Contact

Harpa Birgisdottir
Senior researcher
Tel: +45 5190 4845
Email: hbi@build.aau.dk