Life cycle assessment (LCA) seeks to quantify the environmental impacts of infrastructure over a life time by identifying and accounting for impacts resulting from each phase of the life cycle. LCA can be used to obtain credits in certification systems like LEED, but traditional LCA methods can be time, resource, and data intensive.
For complex systems like residential buildings, these demands can lead to delayed assessments with evaluations carried out after important design decisions have already been made, reducing their effectiveness. CSHub researchers have developed a streamlined approach to LCA that requires significantly less time and data, which can reduce expense as well as uncertainty and allow assessments to be conducted earlier in the building design process when decisions can have the greatest impact. This webinar will present an overview of the CSHub’s streamlined tool, known as the Building Attribute to Impact Algorithm, and a discussion of recent work on the topic.
The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) webinar series offers information of general interest to members of the building, paving, and construction communities, as well as to educators, students, journalists, and law and policy-makers interested in the environmental and economic impacts of decision-making concerning infrastructure. Videos of past webinars are archived to the CSHub YouTube Channel.
Webinars are free and open to the public. Presentations are geared toward a lay audience.