Evaluation of LEED Using Life Cycle Assessment Methods.
Evaluation of LEED Using Life Cycle Assessment Methods.
(2075 K)
Scheuer, C. W.; Keoleian, G. A.
NIST GCR 02-836; 157 p. September 2002.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Available from:
: National Technical Information Service
(NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161.
Telephone:
1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000;
Fax: 703-605-6900; Rush
Service (Telephone Orders Only) 800-553-6847;
Website:
http://www.ntis.gov
Order number: PB2003-100239
Keywords:
commercial buildings; life cycle assessment
Abstract:
Nationally and globally, commercial buildings contribute
significantly to energy consumption, as well as to other
environmental impacts, wuch as air emissions and solid
waste generation. For example, 38% of US primary energy
consumption is related to building operations and 65% of
all 1997 Municipal Solid Waste. Buildings are an
exceedingly complex industrial product with a lifetime
of decades. Emerging health issues related to the
environmental impacts from buildings, such as the
so-called "sick building" syndrome, have intensified
awareness of the role buildings play on our
environmental well-being. While certain efforts have
been on-going to control and manage individual aspects
of the environmental qualities of buildings (i.e.,
energy codes, automation and control schemes, thermal
comfort), comprehensive approaches have been lacking,
particularly in the design stages of a building's life
span. Unfortunately it is in the design stage when the
greatest opportunities are available to affect changes
whose benefits can last for decades. In the last decade
new methods have emerged that regard buildings as a
network of interrelated environmental impacts and seek
to juggle these impacts to create a more integrated and
environmentally benign building.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899