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A Hybrid LCA Approach to Quantify the Environmental Impacts during Construction

Peter K Ndungu, Jeffrey M Molavi

The developmental path taken globally over the past few decades has been ultimately detrimental to the health of our surroundings leading to problems of excessive natural resource depletion, waste generation and environmental stress through harmful emissions. The construction industry being a major contributor to these problems, now faces increasingly restrictive environmental conservation and protective, laws, and regulations. Yet at present, there has been a lack of sufficient, credible and reliable quantitative indictors, metrics and/or data on the actual benefits of sustainable construction. In particular, reduction of environmental effects during construction activities has been one of the main issues facing stakeholders. To address this problem, this study identifies materials and energy flows during construction and develops a method to quantify and measure environmental impacts during raw materials extraction, production, fabrication and installation. By using a Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment approach, this paper provides a detailed assessment of both direct and supply chain impacts. The results quantify and compare the two floor systems in terms oftheir environmental impacts.