Whole life cycle environmental impact assessment of buildings: Developing software tool and database support for the EU framework Level(s)

In 2017, the European Commission published the Beta version of Level(s), a framework for assessing the sustainability of buildings (Dodd et al., 2017). The framework included indicators to enable the assessment of the whole life cycle environmental impacts of a building. To support users, Level(s) was accompanied by a list of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software tools and databases for calculating such indicators. A need was identified to provide Level(s) users with practical, user-orientated information about the scope, cost and accessibility of tools and databases. Tools and databases for the assessment of whole life cycle environmental impacts of buildings, as well as their characteristics, have therefore been further analysed in 2017-2020. This paper describes the policy context of Level(s) and the need to support whole life cycle environmental impact assessment. Furthermore, a revised list of LCA software tools and databases available in Europe for the assessment of buildings is presented and discussed based on a set of criteria to use for their characterisation.

DE WOLF Catherine;  CORDELLA Mauro;  DODD Nicholas;  BYERS Brandon;  DONATELLO Shane; 

2022-11-09

ELSEVIER

JRC127315

0921-3449 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092134492200475X,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC127315,   

10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106642 (online),