SR351 New Zealand whole-building whole-of-life framework: Development of datasheets to support building life cycle assessment (2016)

BRANZ, with industry and research partners, has developed the New Zealand whole-building whole-of-life framework, which aims to provide resources to facilitate more consistent use of life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to buildings. This is especially important now that building LCA is recognised within the Innovation category of the Green Star building environmental rating tool.

To facilitate comparability between building LCAs, datasheets have been developed covering different parts of the building life cycle. The purpose of these datasheets is to help the development of consistent assumptions, inform development of scenarios (as defined in the standard EN 15978) and for filling of data gaps when carrying out building LCA. While the focus of currently available datasheets is on application to new build offices at early (concept and preliminary) design, the data may be useful for other building LCA studies.

This report provides supporting information concerning the methods used to develop the datasheets. As more and better data becomes available, it is intended that the datasheets will be updated.