A life cycle assessment method for buildings

Green building has come to be a goal of building design now. Since sustainable performance of building involves lots of aspects, an integrated index is needed to evaluate it comprehensively. Building environmental impact assessment (EIA) based on life  cycle assessment (LCA) theory is a well-known method to do this. However, when it is used in China, two main difficulties should be overcome: lack of  uniform assessment method and lack of basic data. Aiming at this and combining Chinese special situation, EIA based on damage oriented method is propounded and Building Environment Load  Evaluation System (BELES) is founded. All of the environmental impacts are finally classified into four endpoints: Resource Exhaustion, Energy Exhaustion, Human Health Damage and Ecological Damage. Resource scarcity factor and energy quality coefficient are considered. Weight system is determined by investigation to national experts. This method and framework can be useful guidance to building design, especially to green building assessment.