A Study on the Analysis of LCA tools for Eco-Building

친환경 건축물의 LCA 평가도구 비교분석 연구

Since some decades ago, there has been a concern for resource depletion and environmental pollution associated with building properties. In addressing such impact of the built environment, there is a recognition of the existence of alternative building materials, fuels for energy supply as well as technologies for waste handling and disposal. Nevertheless, for long time, the choice between such alternatives was dictated by factors such as differences in prices and aesthetic values. A new important dimension in discriminating between different options is the environmental dimension. This aspect is important since buildings are one of the spatially big new additions to the natural environment that consume a lot of materials and energy during their long lifetime. Thus, with the environmental dimension kept in mind, a existing cost estimation needs to be changed. A new cost assessment method, Life Cycle Cost, should calculate overall costs with dimensional factors: investment and utility costs as well as maintenance costs over the lifetime of the building. Aiming to give an overview of the present status of Building Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) tools as a basis for further research and development including economic performance, this paper describes and compares 3 different tools for Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) and economic analysis of the green buildings. This paper compared these approaches based on various aspects. These include economic analysis method, evaluation duration, data of results(index). Use of the comparison analysis is to produce a better picture and indicate profits and shortcomings for the tools as a group; thus providing important direction improvement of LCA tool as well as further research and development of this group of tools.