Construction Materials and AusLCI

It is generally acknowledged that procurement of materials and products for the construction and fit-out of buildings is currently being driven by overly simplistic considerations and claims like "recycled", "recyclable", "carbon neutral", "low ecological impact", "low embodied energy", "renewable", "low VOC", "locally sourced" .... etc. These single issues may all contribute to the benefits of a particular material or product choice, but on their own can be misleading.

The construction materials and products industries are enthusiastic to move toward a full LCA based assessment of materials and products on a Level Playing Field basis in particular because buildings have such long lives with many replacements of some materials and products, but with others lasting the life of the building.

The Building Products Innovation Council (BPIC) and AusIndustry (through the Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP)) have approved funding to the tune of $1.6M over 3 years in support of the Australain Life Cycle Inventory (AusLCI) project. This project will establish a methodology and database of consistent life cycle data, a consistent set of data for material and product replacement intervals and a consistent set of weightings for the relative importance of different environmental impacts in different climates.

The partners to the project include the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS), CSIRO, BRANZ, State and Federal Government in Australia and it is hoped to extend the scope to New Zealand. Edge Environment are subcontracted by BRANZ to project manage and provide key technical advisory and facilitation over the three year project.

For more information about the project contact Nigel on: Nigel.Howard@EdgeEnvironment.com.au