Recent Developments, Future Challenges and New Research Directions in LCA of Buildings: A Critical Review

Considering the vast and rapidly growing area of buildings, LCA research is being led in numerous different areas ranging from building materials and components level to whole building analysis. This review aims to explore the application of LCA to the various areas in the buildings sector. The areas of embodied energy and building certification systems have seen the maximum growth in the most recent years. Related challenges and research opportunities from these and other areas that require research are discussed. This paper also reviews the use of LCA in buildings industry and reports the associated developments and future research opportunities. The research areas identified include, comparison issues of LCA studies, difference in calculated and actual impacts, refurbishment analysis for whole buildings, system boundary selection procedure, standard data collection procedure, missing data, embodied energy indicator, deconstruction analysis, implementation of dynamic LCA, use of LCA in industry and difference in results from LCA integrated certification and LCA of buildings.