The role of LCA in the german sustainable building certification

Throughout the world, the construction sector has responded to its responsibility for the contribution to global warming and other environmental impacts. The establishment of green buildings is the sector?s answer to the question about ecodesign. Moreover, certification schemes for green buildings and sustainable construction are available in several countries. In Germany, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) has defined a set of criteria as the basis of a sustainable building label that claims to cover all aspects of sustainability. Within this German Certification for Sustainable Construction, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been defined as a core means to assess the sustainability performance of buildings. LCA is now responsible for a share of 13.5 % of the overall score of the sustainability assessment of buildings and currently, German planners and construction consultants gain experience with LCA of buildings, which is quite new to the majority of the construction sector.