May 12, 2010—The American Institute of Architects has published the AIA Guide to Building Life Cycle Assessment in Practice. This guide details the tools and tactics of balancing the costs and benefits of material and systems selection based on resource consumption and pollution.

By comparing the whole building and individual components, architects and engineers can calculate environmental impacts at the outset of a project, and refine those calculations as the project proceeds, says AIA. That way, owners can see the potential for a proposed design option to cause or mitigate global warming, acidification, eutrophication (excess nutrient leaching that causes, for example, algae bloom), fossil-fuel depletion, smog formation, ozone depletion, ecological toxicity, and water use.

The life cycle assessment (LCA) process includes all participants in the planning, design, construction, and operations of a facility, starting with setting the goal and scope of the LCA.

The guide uses case studies to explain the process and the many computer-aided assessment tools and databases of product performance and regional conditions that exist now or are in development.

Written by architects for architects, AIA Guide to Building Life Cycle Assessment in Practice is an essential introduction to this rapidly developing field of cradle to grave building resource management. It recognizes the current limitations of LCA—particularly the current nascence of client demand and comprehensive databases—and looks ahead to the next emerging discipline in measuring building design, construction, and operations sustainability.

For more information, see the AIA Web site.