LORE-LCA · Low Resource consumption buildings and constructions by use of LCA in design and decision making

LoRe-LCA aims to coordinate activities regarding the application of LCA in the European construction sector, focusing on comparing and improving the functional units used for LCA for whole buildings, improving the possibilities to compare results for different alternatives during design stage, and for comparison of results for different buildings. The project focuses on harmonisation and use of LCA-methods in design and decision-making for reaching overall goals of reduced resource consumption. The main objectives are: 1. Analyse the potential and restrictions of the European building regulations framework to influence the resource consumption in construction, and to derive policy recommendations on energy, pollution prevention, landfill, waste, etc, 2.Collect and compare assessment methods of environmental performance used in different countries, with emphasis on LCA methods, to facilitate meaningful evaluation and communication to stakeholders including the public. 3. Support the standardisation activities of CEN TC350 and other initiatives by taking into account the different approaches and local specificities which exist and provide input to European harmonisation activities. 4. Encourage the use of LCA methodologies by dissemination to the relevant actors in the design and construction process. 5. Resolve methodological problems related to the scope and limits of the system under study by defining needs and objectives of different user groups, hereunder defining functional units and performance indicators, for instance for health and indoor climate, to ensure comparability. 6. Facilitate comparisons and scenarios to improve decision making at the design stage and provide guidelines on the use of benchmarking data. 7. Establish best practices for use of LCA in design and decision, analysing case studies and looking at products and the building/construction as a whole. 8. Implement the use of open standards to facilitate use of LCA tools in design