LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) determines the environmental impact of a building (product or service) throughout its life cycle. Every life cycle stage must be considered for a full cradle-to-grave picture; this is also important to avoid burden-shifting when savings in one life stage is merely shifted to another stage. Life cycle stages for a building include product stage, construction process stage, use stage, and end-of-life stage. Life cycle stages for a product include resource use, material processing, product manufacturing, distribution, use of the product, and end-of-life operations. LCA is an estimating science based on assumptions and incomplete data so use results as a guidepost and not an absolute.

Cradle-to-cradle concept (developed by chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough in the 1990s) advocates that every waste stream from every product should be the input to a different production cycle. All material inputs and outputs are seen either as technical or biological nutrients.

Carbon footprint, or global warming potential (GWP), is a LCA study that only reports one impact: greenhouse gas emissions.

EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is an information sheet with a product’s full environmental impact during its entire lifetime. EPDs are based on Life Cycle Assessments.