Development of a Life Cycle Assessment Program for building (SUSB-LCA) in South Korea

Our environment is an important resource, not only for use in development, but to conserve. In the 1990s, the importance of our environment became underscored for conservation efforts in many areas. Among them, the building construction industry had played a role in impoverishing the environment, for the sake of improving our quality of life, but at a great cost of impact to the environment. It is therefore incumbent upon the industry to endeavor to mitigate effects from building constructions to our environment. During the life cycle of a building, it consumes energy and other natural resources. But it is difficult to evaluate their effects on the environment during the entire course of a building's life span, without much time and effort. An easy to handle program is necessary for the calculation of effects to the environment during the life cycle of a building. Many of the software programs developed for these kinds of assessments can only be used with significant restrictions because of their differences in design for scope and content. This paper presents foundations for the development of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) program for buildings, focusing on their energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission levels, with a comparison of domestically and foreign designed programs. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.