Life Cycle Assessments

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used as a decision-making tool for the assessment of building products when considering the overall environmental impact of a building. But what does it mean?

LCA is a scientific method used to compile and evaluate the environmental impacts of a material, product or service throughout its entire life cycle.
There are five commonly accepted stages in an LCA approach: production, construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life.

The 5 Life Cycle Assessment Stages

• Production Extracting raw materials, transport of materials to production plant and the manufacturing process.
• Construction Transport of product and construction workforce to site, installation and application of materials/products.
• Operation Influence of the material/product on the heating and cooling operations of
  the building.
• Maintenance Maintain a product to ensure quality is retained for the intended lifespan of the building. This stage could include renovation projects.
• End-of-life Ability to reuse or recycle material or product at the building’s end-of-life, or the generation of waste to landfill.