Economic valuation of life cycle environmental impacts of construction products - A critical analysis

[摘要] The aim of this paper is to identify existing methods for economic valuation or monetisation of life cycle environmental impacts and to assess its applicability in the broad European context. Although environmental awareness is more and more important in several industrial sectors, including the construction sector, easy to understand data are still missing for professionals to assess and manage impacts related to the whole life cycle of a building. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the most commonly accepted methodologies to calculate potential life cycle environmental impacts of a product or service. However, the results of such method, even when published in an Environmental Product Declaration, meant for business to business communication, are not always comparable or easily understandable by non-practitioners. Economic valuation or monetisation of LCA results is a weighting step that can make it easier for non-practitioners to use LCA results to support decision-making. From the several monetisation methods analysed, it is discussed the one that is most suitable for use when LCA results already exist. It is concluded that further work is needed to improve such weighting methods or develop a common one that can be representative at a broader geographical level (for instance, Europe-wide).

[发布机构] CERIS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal^1;CTAC, University of Minho, Department of Civil Engineering, Guimaraes, Portugal^2

[学科分类] 环境科学（综合）

[关键词] Business-to-business communications;Construction products;Construction sectors;Economic valuation;Environmental awareness;Environmental product declarations;Life Cycle Assessment (LCA);Life-cycle environmental impact