Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of a Social Interest Housing Unit: Strategies for Constructive Systems Decision-Making

The objective of this research is to analyze the environmental impact of constructive systems of a social interest housing unit using LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), comparing its elements in order to contribute in project decisions that aim to reduce environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of buildings and to enable more sustainable urban developments. The method for applying the LCA followed the guidelines of NBR ISO 14040 and NBR ISO 14044. From the results found, it is possible to verify that the wall system was the element with the highest concentration of impacts compared to the other analyzed systems. It is then confirmed the importance of defining and choosing the constructive techniques and materials for the building since the elements can contribute to reducing or leveraging the generated impacts. In this way, the main contribution of this research refers to identifying strategic points for the definition and considerations on solutions to be employed for the design of less environmentally impacting buildings.