Assessing Environmental Impact of Green Buildings through LCA Methods: A comparison between Reinforced Concrete and Wood Structures in the European Context

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used successfully to make decisions in sustainable building design and construction. Nevertheless, the method is rarely utilized for many reasons. First of all,in the common practice the energy consumption during the period of use is considered the main indicator of the environmental impactof buildings. Secondarily, databases relative to products, components and their installation cannot be found soeasily. The goal of this paper is tomake a comparison between two different construction technologies through Life Cycle Assessment methods, trying to understand the potentialities and the limitations of the available LCA tools. Although results may be limited to the specific context of Europe, we try to put in evidence the usefulness of the method in a design perspective, if carefully selected and adapted. The comparison regards two different structural solutions for a mid-sizedgreen building:an innovative wood structureand a reinforced concrete structure, built with a consolidated technology.According to the LCA approach,overall wood structures are environmentally less impactful thanconcrete ones, but different kinds of impact emerge in a wider perspective.