1. Scope
The focus of this Standard is on the criteria that should be taken into account when Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is applied at the whole building level. This standard does not supersede or modify existing ISO standards for the application of LCA at the product level, nor does it deal with the aggregation of building product EPDs at the whole building level. The focus is on the criteria that should be met to ensure fair comparisons across building design irrespective of the LCA tool that is used. A starting list of those criteria includes the following: the life cycle stages that should be included; activities such as on-site construction and material/product maintenance and replacement; the treatment of service life; variation with regard to building type and ownership (e.g., owner occupied versus rental); end-of-life considerations with regard to the assignment of burdens to subsequent reuse, recycling, and disposal activities; the treatment of operating energy; LCA impact measures and characterization factors; the use of any weighting or scoring systems; and life cycle inventory (LCI) data sources. The criteria do not deal with the following environmental concerns that are either outside the purview of LCA as currently practiced, have unacceptably high uncertainty levels, or are in an early stage of development for use in LCA: indoor air quality; human health effects; social impacts; monetary assessments, such as life cycle costing; and risk assessment related to toxic releases.
To provide guidance as to the things to be considered when conducting a whole building LCA.
Keywords
LCA; Life Cycle Assessment; Sustainability
The title and scope are in draft form and are under development within this ASTM Committee.
Citing ASTM Standards
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