{"id":1862,"date":"2014-10-28T23:17:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T23:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edgeenvironment.com\/?p=599"},"modified":"2019-09-27T13:58:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T03:58:46","slug":"life-cycle-assessment-underpinning-green-rating-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edgeenvironment.com\/us\/2014\/10\/28\/life-cycle-assessment-underpinning-green-rating-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Cycle Assessment underpinning green rating tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green Building Council of Australia<\/a> (GBCA) has released Green Star 2014 Design and As Built tool. The revised tool includes credits requiring Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to measure sustainability performance at both the whole of building and building component level.<\/p>\n

These credits represent a ‘coming of age’ for LCA within the building and construction industry in Australia and are expected to stimulate the use of LCA and development of Environmental Product Declarations. This follows international developments including incorporation of a pilot credit for LCA based building product information<\/a> and a pilot credit for whole building LCA<\/a> in LEED and similar moves in BREEAM.<\/p>\n

For Green Star 2014, up to 7 points are available when a whole of building LCA is undertaken. The LCA measures impacts from raw material production through product manufacturing, transport, construction, building use, maintenance, de-construction and disposal. Points are awarded based upon the cumulative impact reduction against a standard reference building; from 1 point for a 30% reduction to 6 points for a 130% reduction. Points are awarded for reporting across 6 environmental impact categories with a bonus point is awarded when an additional 5 environmental impact categories are included.<\/p>\n

Up to 3 points are available for a range of product sustainability criteria including;<\/p>\n