Tool design for life cycle assessment of the residential building stock in Colombia

Abstract

The building sector have a major environmental impact throughout their life cycle and it is expected to increase progressively in the coming years. The evaluation of this environmental impact is necessary both to identify the most contributing stages and to select those more sustainable alternatives. To do this, the application of LCA methodology is a key issue. At a global level, different LCA tools have been developed linked to the building sector, however, their application to Latin American countries is not always possible due to the construction particularities of the building stock and the lack of inventory data applicable to the geographic and the socio-economic context. The objective of this study is to design a LCA tool adapted to the specific context of the building sector in Colombia, which allows calculating the environmental impact of residential buildings in an intuitive way for the user. To do so, firstly, a scientific background review of the existing LCA tools for buildings at an international level and then, the requirements that the tool to be designed must have were identified and established. Finally, the structure and the main functionalities of the LCA tool for buildings in the context of Colombia were presented. © 2023 by The authors.