CIBSE ASHRAE Technical Symposium, Imperial College, London UK – 18 th and 19 th April 2012 Page 1 of 13 Activity-Based Methodology for Life Cycle Assessment of Building Construction Sarah Russell-Smith 1 , Michael Lepech 2 1 Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University 2 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University Abstract Building stakeholders cannot easily quantify the sustainability impacts of constructed facilities. They lack information to perform effective analysis, management, and decision- making. In part, this is due to inadequate tools and methods to assess building life cycle impacts from design through construction. Currently available methods lack interoperability between design, analysis, and management software and life cycle inventory datasets that enable full life cycle assessment (LCA). To methodically manage the reduction of life cycle environmental impacts of buildings during construction, it is necessary to link environmental targets with modern construction management methods. This work develops a construction activity-based computational framework to enable stakeholders to reliably and efficiently construct dynamic life cycle models. Methods have been developed for time dependent impact budgets to provide construction managers and building owners a basis for process control. Specifically, the components developed are: (A) time dependent impact accrual budgets during construction and (B) impact measurement during construction. These benchmarks are used to determine whether a specific project is above or below expectations, similar to a cost and schedule variance analysis. An industry project is used as a case study implementation of this framework. This integration provides an LCA modelling platform for management of environmental footprint during construction. Keywords Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, Sustainable Construction