A Methodological Study of Life Cycle Assessment

The construction sector is one of the main contributors to the harmful environmental effects. Several methods were developed in the past to assess the sustainability performance of construction materials and construction methods. Among those, life cycle assessment (LCA) is one such method that has the special feature of quantifying the environmental impacts of materials. This makes the decision-making process much easier between alternative materials based on environmental performance. However, different life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods are used for this quantification process, and there are some steps related to the calculation process in LCIA that lack specified procedures, which lead to different outcomes. Considering this methodological issue and the lack of LCA studies related to green building materials, this paper first illustrates the comparative analysis of LCIA methodologies supported by a sample LCA study for the clay brick manufacturing process in Sri Lanka. Then based on the observations from the comparative analysis of LCIA methods and the case study LCA results, a set of suggestions is provided to minimize the controversiality between LCIA results in assessing sustainability of building materials. Also, several barriers and improvements are illustrated for LCA and LCIA related to the Sri Lankan context supported by an informative interview with NCPC Sri Lanka.