Buildings & Environment: Full Life Cycle Assessment National Environmental Weightings Workshops

Scientific evidence on climate change and its deleterious impact on the environment continues to grow, compelling governments, businesses and consumers to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition there are a wide range of other environmental impacts that arise from the products, energy and water that we consume in our homes, workplaces, leisure activities and transport.

Through the AusIndustry Industry Cooperative Innovation Programme, the Department of Innovation Industry Science and Research is co-funding this project, Buildings and Environment Full Life Cycle Assessment, with an industry consortium lead by the Building Products Innovation Council (BPIC) in partnership with ALCAS (Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society) and BRANZ. An outcome of the project will be a new national database which will provide comprehensive information on a broad range of environmental impacts from building and construction materials.

This building materials/products project is part of a wider project being undertaken by (ALCAS), addressing all sectors of Australian industry, the Australian Life Cycle Inventory Project (AusLCI). This data will provide the most comprehensive information available on the environmental impacts from all sectors of Australian industry. In order to use this information in practical ways, we need to know how important these impacts are compared to each other - in other words how important is ecological impact to you compared to human toxicity compared to climate change compared to the ozone hole etc.

The project team are now seeking the help and opinion of a broad range of stakeholders around Australia to understand how Australians judge the relative importance (weighting) of these different impacts. The weightings will be derived from a series of three hour workshops in 11 different locations selected to span all climate zones and all States and Territories. It is recognised that different parts of Australia are concerned about different environmental impacts due to different climates, vulnerabilities to water scarcity, different industries (and jobs) and different local ecological sensitivities for example.

We expect the results of this exercise to be widely used to in environmental assessment tools for buildings and ecolabels for building products. In short, these results will make a substantial contribution to many aspects of environmental assessment and innovation in Australia for many years to come.

Please be assured that you do not need to be an environmental expert. We value your opinion and you are invited to participate in your local weightings workshop.

Please RSVP tp: Ben.Kneppers@EdgeEnvironment.com.au