Green building refers both to environmentally friendly structures and to the use of environmentally friendly materials and application of resource-efficient processes through the various stages of a building's lifecycle. Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. Costing for green building methods is a challenging exercise due to the relative novelty of green building and the variety of variables that can be considered in such costing ( RS Means Company Staff , 2011) . Popular belief holds that green building methods add between 10 to 15 % to building costs. However, proponents of green building often list reduction in building costs as one of the benefits of green building. The immediate costs of building green appear in many cases to be higher than if conventional building procedures, designs or materials were used. Due to such variances in experiences, it is essential to have a well-defined framework that can be applied uniformly, facilitating a fair assessment. Two frameworks commonly used are Lifecycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment.
Life Cycle Costing
Life cycle costing involves the quantifying of the total "…costs and benefits over the life of a particular product, technology or system" (Katz, 2003). The savings are chiefly achieved by reducing costs and savings in maintenance and operations. To achieve this, the estimated utility, maintenance and operations cost savings over a building's useful life are subtracted from the total direct costs related to the building components and its subsystems (Bribián et al., 2009). Other savings can be realized through the construction process. By applying green building methods, one can significantly lower the amount of site disturbance, the quantity of waste sent to landfills, and the use of natural resources during construction (Katz, 2003).
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Estimating the life cycle cost of a green building is associated with a high degree of uncertainty because buildings, in general, have a long life cycle, and green buildings may have longer lifecycles built into them at the design stage. According to the US General Services Administration, The most effective approach to LCC is to integrate it into the design process appropriately. Life cycle costing has an inherent weakness in that it doesn't take into account the impact of the building and building processes on the environment. To ascertain this, it is necessary to carry out a life cycle assessment.
Life Cycle Assessment
Life-cycle assessment is a method that is used to assess the environmental impacts related to all stages of a product's life. This is from the extraction of raw materials to the processing of materials, manufacturing, and distribution. It is also used in the assessment of repair and maintenance, use as well as disposal or recycling. This process is used by designers to help them in critiquing their products. The LCAs compare the full range of environmental effects assignable to products and services and processes. This is via quantification of all inputs and outputs of material flows, and through assessing how these material flows affect the environment (Bribián et al., 2009) .
The LCA is a whole-system approach to understanding the environmental consequences of technology choices, analyzing the cradle-to-grave impact to the planet of materials or products, this information is vital in the improvement of processes, support policy as well as the provision of a sound basis for making informed decisions. Life cycle assessment is a practical framework for analyzing similar aspects of quantifiable systems. However, not every factor can be modeled. Accounting for systemic changes is at times difficult. Also, this framework is highly sensitive to availability and accuracy of data. However, by its consideration of environmental factors, it allows for a wholesome evaluation of green building methods.
Despite the fact that there is consensus on the environmental and social benefits of green building, there is notable that the lack of accurate and thorough financial and economic information hinders the effective valuation of green building methods. However, by applying both frameworks to evaluate green building processes, a suitable method can be arrived at with a fair deal of certainty. There is however great need for an integrated approach that can evaluate as many considerations as possible to choose the most suitable process for green building.
References
Bribián, I. Z., Usón, A. A., & Scarpellini, S. (2009). Life cycle assessment in buildings: State-of-the-art and simplified LCA methodology as a complement for building certification. Building and Environment , 44 (12), 2510-2520.
Kats, G. (2003). The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green: A Report to California’s Sustainable Building Task Force. Retrieved from evanmills.lbl.gov/pubs/pdf/green_buildings.pdf
RS Means Company Staff. (2011). Green building: Project planning and cost estimating . Wiley .
