Pre-Design
Patterns and Recommendations
3.
Life-Cycle Costs –
Considering impacts from cradle to grave
Often,
materials or systems that look like a bargain turn out not to be such a good deal over the
long run—either for the owner or for the environment.
Outfitting a house with materials that cost the least at the time of purchase may
saddle a house’s occupant and owner with high operating costs, recurring maintenance,
expensive repairs, high disposal costs, and even potential health problems. Some products also burden the environment
excessively, causing severe impacts in the way they are obtained, the pollution produced
in their manufacture, and the energy they consume in transport and installation.
Comparing
the life-cycle costs of materials can be challenging, because there is no single
repository of information on the complete life cycles of all types of building products. Applying some general rules of thumb, however, can
help a project avoid the products with the greatest life-cycle cost, and steer toward the
use of products with lower life-cycle costs.
Recommendations:
§ Choose
products that are recyclable at the end of their useful life.
§ Give
preference to locally- and
regionally-produced equivalent products.
§ Avoid
products with components or constituents that are regulated as hazardous waste.
§ Consider the expected lifetime and
maintenance requirements of all products relative to alternative products.
§ Select
energy-efficient and water-efficient systems and appliances to reduce lifetime
consumption.
Reference:
§ BEES 2.0 Building for
Environmental and Economic Sustainability software
§ Guide to Resource-Efficient Building Elements
§ "Building
Materials: What Makes a Product Green?" Environmental
Building News
§ Life
Cycle of Building Products, ATHENA Sustainable Materials
Institute
§ Environmental Impact Assessment
links, from the Global Development Research Centre
§ Greening
the Building Life Cycle: Life Cycle Assessment Tools in Building and
Construction (An Australian website.)
Applied in Case Studies:
§ Casa
Verde
Builders
§ Emeryville Resourceful Building Project
§ Erie-Ellington
Homes
§ Hawaii
BuiltGreen Home
Additional Examples:
§ St.
Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County
§ Muncie Homeownership and Development Center
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