LCA utilization for buildings: Current situation and future issues

Abstract

The report aimed to clarify issues on utilization of building LCA in Japan and discuss ways to deal with them. First, over 300 Japanese and international papers related to LCA were reviewed and showed that, while many international studies adopted multiple criteria for impact assessment; almost all Japanese papers discussed LCA based only on analyses of energy consumption and CO2 emission. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was conducted with building LCA practitioners in Japan as respondents; which revealed that their purposes of assessments varied widely. The survey also clarified a number of key issues, such as guideline, inventory database, and software.