An application of LCA methodology to residential building in Italy: support tools for designers

The focus on the reduction of energy consumption in the last Italian Decrees for the enforcement of the UE Directive 2002/91/CE on Energy Performance in Buildings does not take the whole building process - from resource extraction and production to building construction and disposal/recycling - into due consideration. The integration of LCA methodology in the design phase, providing for the information necessary to identify the most compatible solutions among different design alternatives, could significantly contribute to the mitigation of global environmental burdens. Current efforts for the application of this methodology to building reveal some critical issues. One main question is the lack of sufficient data for building assessment studies appropriate for the Italian context; another point is the existence of operational difficulties for building design professionals, that need a deep knowledge of methods and software tools in order to collect and organize necessary data (where available). The hypothesis to carry out 'whole-building' LCA analyses starting from raw materials, then, often results in a hardly feasible task. It appears necessary to make structured data directly available, aimed at supporting the most recurring decisional phases within the design process, such as those related to different technological solutions for building components and sub-systems.