Title:
Guidelines to integrate life cycle assessment in building design

dc.contributor.advisor Augenbroe, Godfried
dc.contributor.author Joshi, Surabhi en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Bayer, Charlene
dc.contributor.committeeMember Gentry, T. Russell
dc.contributor.department Architecture en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2010-01-29T19:53:25Z
dc.date.available 2010-01-29T19:53:25Z
dc.date.issued 2009-11-17 en_US
dc.description.abstract As the architecture and construction industry places an increased emphasis on sustainability, building researchers are seeking more comprehensive methods to evaluate and reduce a building's environmental impacts. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has emerged as one of the most capable tools to aid in this assessment. Presently there are no guiding principles for the use of LCA in the building industry. This thesis aims to provide guidelines to help architects utilize LCA methodology as part of the design process. This study reviews a number of previously-completed whole-building LCA case-studies to understand different LCA scenarios of use in the building industry. In addition, a set of North American and international LCA tools were evaluated for their utility in different scenarios. The state of research was assessed to find answers to some critical issues concerning LCA. Based on these analyses, a number of scenarios of use of LCA were identified and a set of guidelines was proposed to conduct LCA for buildings. It was concluded that the present use of LCA is limited due to limited tool capabilities, deficient databases and lack of a building-specific methodology. The study recognizes these limitations and recommends specific research opportunities for future researchers. However, it is concluded that approximate LCA results obtained from the tools available today can be useful in informing design-decisions, keeping in mind the lack of precision in the results. en_US
dc.description.degree M.S. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31791
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Building assessment en_US
dc.subject LCA en_US
dc.subject Life cycle assessment en_US
dc.subject Buildings en_US
dc.subject Building performance en_US
dc.subject Environmental impact en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Product life cycle Environmental aspects
dc.subject.lcsh Buildings Performance
dc.subject.lcsh Building industry
dc.subject.lcsh Environmental impact analysis
dc.subject.lcsh Sustainable architecture
dc.title Guidelines to integrate life cycle assessment in building design en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Augenbroe, Godfried
local.contributor.corporatename College of Design
local.contributor.corporatename School of Architecture
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 7a1041d3-9298-48b6-bb90-f09619e6e744
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication c997b6a0-7e87-4a6f-b6fc-932d776ba8d0
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 0533a423-c95b-41cf-8e27-2faee06278ad
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