Authors
Backes, Jana Gerta; Traverso, Marzia
Abstract
The construction industry is responsible for about 10% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 100 million people, at the same time contributes significantly to resource depletion, energy consumption and emissions. The Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) as framework is considered to provide a valuable support to decision makers. It extends the scope of the known Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to cover all three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. At present, the number of published LCSA studies in the construction sector is comparatively small – leading to the assumption that only a small amount of decisions in this sector was and is based on LCSA. To foster the partnership between LCSA and the construction sector, an understanding of backgrounds and options of LCSA application in this sector is necessary, which motivates the following methodology: A worldwide survey is conducted via an online questionnaire to ask LCSA experts, independent of the construction sector, about their use and interpretation of LCSA. At the same time, two surveys are distributed to people working in the construction sector. One survey is focusing on today’s decision makers in the construction industry, including questions like how important sustainability in the construction sector is to them, which certification systems are known, whether they are familiar with LCSA and what role sustainability plays in their daily decision-making. The second survey is launched with future decision makers in the construction sector (students) to find out whether something needs to be aimed for in education in order to deeply anchor LCSA in the construction sector and among future decisions. The methodology itself and first results from the two construction-survey-groups are to be presented at the conference. In the long term, this research will support the materialization of sustainability visions in the construction sector.