input data for a cradle to cradle LCA of a building

Question

What type of input data is required for a cradle to cradle LCA of a building when studying it's environmental impacts.

Answer 1

Hi Lily, I think this is a very broad question and not related to a specific LCA software like openLCA so I don't think you can get a detailed answer for your question here. In general you would need a database that contains the necessary building materials like concrete, gravel, cement and so on. More importantly you'll need to calculate the energy consumption (natural gas, electricity...) and maintenance needs for your building during its full service life which can be tricky. Then there's the decomission phase which involves demolition, recycling, waste manegement etc.

There's plenty of materials out there if you google "building LCA", also there's a standard called EN 15804 which deals specifically with buildings. Hope I could help,

Artur

Comments

Thank you Artur - just to add, some flows needed for C2C are typically "disappearing" in normal LCA calculation; if you model these as elementary flows in your foreground system, and use specfically adapted databases, such as recent GaBi and EuGeos' EN15804, energy and waste flows are still present in the calculation result and can be further analysed. Of course, cradle to cradle is not exactly the same as modeling following EN15804.