Life cycle assessment of buildings: A review

Sustainable development requires methods and tools to measure and compare the environmental impacts of human activities for various products (goods and services). Providing society with goods and services contribute to a wide range of environmental impacts. Environmental impacts include emissions into the environment and the consumption of resources as well as other inventions such as land use etc. In order to create an environmentally-conscious building, the environmental impacts of entire service life must be known. The aim of this study is to review various buildings at different places, whose LCA has been performed and to see that which phase of the life cycle of building and which type of building consumes more energy and have more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It has been observed that operational phase alone contributes more than 50% to GHG emissions and is highest energy consumer (80–85%) which is a matter of concern and cannot be ignored. Now there is a need for some alternative ways to design buildings for a sustainable future.