Study on Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Buildings: A Review

As per United Nations (UN), fossil fuels contribute largely to climatic changes, and they are liable for emitting above 75% of greenhouse gases globally. The various other causes of climate change include heat and electricity generation, manufacturing of goods, deforestation, agriculture and changes in land use, transportation running on fossil fuels, production of food, consumption of goods such as plastics, electronics and clothing, and others. Further, the fast growth of the construction industry in the past few years increased the amount of greenhouse gas emissions all over the world. Commercial buildings and residences expend above half of the overall energy globally, also there has been a gradual rise in carbon dioxide emissions from buildings in current times. Therefore, weather changes and global warming have become global issues, due to which sustainable development has gained major prominence in the field of construction, to reduce damages to the environment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool which is useful for evaluating such concerns pertaining to environment on a ‘cradle-to-grave’ basis. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is deemed to be as LCA’s future. This paper aims to furnish a review of LCA and LCSA studies performed by various researchers all over the world, to understand its present status with respect to different types of LCA and LCSA studies in the building and construction fields. This study’s novelty lies in the fact that it has further aimed to find out whether culture, the fourth pillar of sustainability has been addressed in building LCA and LCSA studies in the past. The findings of this study have been summarized in the conclusion section which can be taken up by researchers for future studies. © The Institution of Engineers (India) 2024.