The Application of Life Cycle Assessment to a Building: A Systematic Literature Review

The increased population and rapid urbanisation are the major contributors to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission which has drastic impact on environment. Several studies are conducted on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach which has been applied on different areas of building from its material production stage to end of life stage. This review assembles and encapsulates recent endowments associated with environmental impact evaluation using the LCA methodology. The study classifies the recent contributions in this sector into six different streams, such as (i) different types of residential buildings, (ii) building rehabilitation work, (iii) recycled building materials, (iv) building materials, (v) building elements, (vi) Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW). The review shows that many research have conducted based on lifecycle assessment using variegated methods particularly process LCA, input-output LCA and hybrid LCA on different stages of a building. Various impact categories were considered in each paper to determine the intensity of environmental impact. The success of LCA approach lies on data availability and framework modelling.