Evah Institute Driving positive sustainability

Life Cycle Inventory

LCIs

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is important because we can only manage what we measure and LCA is recognised as one of the best methods of measuring ecological burdens and benefits. LCA is also a window on innovation as well as due diligence.

The Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (CRC CI), CSIRO, RMIT, ecospecifier, Evah Associates and other teams have worked on such LCA tools and databases since 1995 with input from a wide range of primary and secondary industry supply chain segments. Lack of competitor agreement on data or methods is an ongoing historical reality but alone it is not sufficient reason to discourage people from applying the existing valuable body of LCA knowledge to improve their environmental performance.

Evah Associates use and develop LCI databases compiled by:

  • Government, Research and Industry teams under confidentiality agreements since 1995
  • Groups in key primary and secondary industry on local and overseas inventory data
  • Partners in Tables 1 and 2 below with knowledge from buying and researching products
  • Teams working in mineral, timber, fuel, power, metal, polymer and chemical segments
  • Scientists with public access data on licensed operations, resource quality and emissions

Engaging industry delegates on site at:

  1. Mines, quarries, forests & refineries; thermal, hydro & nuclear power stations
  2. Blast, electric & basic oxygen steel furnaces; wire, tube, cable & furniture mills
  3. Timber, brick, fibre, yarn, cloth, steel, concrete & gypsum makers and fabricators
  4. Strip, copper, carpet, ply & saw mills; concrete, paint, glass & polymer plants
  5. Extruders, ceramics & sawmills; construction, industrial & infrastructure sites

Licensed access to finance databases on industry ownership, supply & technology, and licensed use of LCI models of Global Council commissioned manufacturing operations.

Table 1 — The Australian CRC for Construction Innovation: Australian Partners

Industry

  • Rider Levett Bucknall
  • Bovis Lend Lease
  • Parsons Brinckerhoff
  • ARUP
  • Thiess
  • Leighton
  • Mirvac
  • Woods Bagot
  • Brookwater
  • John Holland
  • Dem
  • Nexus Point Solutions

Government

  • Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
  • Australian Building Codes Board
  • Building Commission of Victoria
  • Queensland Building Services Authority
  • Sydney Opera House Trust
  • Queensland Public Works
  • Queensland Main Roads
  • Brisbane City Council
  • Western Australia Office of Strategic Projects
  • Queensland Tourism, Regional Development and Industry

Research

  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of Newcastle
  • Curtin University of Technology
  • University of Sydney
  • Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)

Table 2 — The Australian CRC for Construction Innovation: International Alliances

Industry

  • International Council for Research & Innovation in Building & Construction (CIB)
  • buildingSMART — International Alliance for Interoperability

International Construction Research Alliance (ICALL)

  • Research Institute for the Built and Human Environment, University of Salford, UK
  • Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)
  • Centre for Integrated Facilitated Engineering (CIFE), Stanford University, USA
  • Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), France
  • Faculty of Construction and Land Use, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Consensus Development for our Tools, Databases and Methods

Over the years our teams have engaged with:

  • ecospecifier, Boral, RMIT, BlueScope, Onesteel, Pilkington and others with LCI data
  • Stakeholders, Government, BHP and the CRC CI with national building supply chain LCI
  • NSW Government LCI for NSW Supply contracts requiring suppliers LCI data from 1995
  • NSW Government teams applying LCI for Green Games 2000 under a global media spotlight
  • CRC CI Partners from building, construction and FM sectors constituting ~18% GDP developing LCI with $20M Commonwealth Government matching funding since 2001
  • Industry practitioners to improve the record on asbestos, lead, Chrome 6, VCM, VOX, CO2e

CRC CI methods documented in:

  • LCI Process Modeling First Generation 2001-006-B-08 — Icon.Net, Australia
  • LCI for Australian Commercial Building Material 2001-006-B-15 — Icon.Net, Australia

Papers on our LCI and LCA methodology

  • Jones D. G., Watson P., Scuderi P. & Mitchell P. (2006). National Inventory Forms and Functions. Procs ALCAS 2006, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Mitchell P., Jones D., Watson P. & Seo S. (2005). A National Building Industry Inventory. Procs ALCAS 2005: Sustainability Measures for Decision-support, Sydney, Australia.
  • Jones D. G., Johnston D. R. & Tucker S. N. (2003). Life Cycle Inventory for Australian Building Materials. Procs of the CIB Conference SASBE 2003, Brisbane, Australia.
  • Seo S. (2002). International Review of Environmental Assessment Tools & Databases.

External PDFs

Banksia Award & CGI-97 Forum

Participant consensus originates from LCA protocols established at the 1998 Banksia Award winning National Directions CGI 97 Forum of Community Government & Industry documented in:

  • Gilbert D. L., et al. (1998). Directions for A Healthier and Sustainable Built Environment: The Built Environment Protocol. Procs Building & Environment in Asia Conf., Singapore.
  • CGI-97 Directions Forum (1997). Built Environment Protocol.
  • CGI-Directions Forum (1997). Built Environment Sustainability Task Force.
  • Jones D. G. (1997). Scope & Boundaries For The Forum & Protocol. Procs Conference Directions for a Healthier and Sustainable Environment: CGI-97 Directions Forum, Australia.

Further papers on LCI consensus development

  • Mitchell P., Jones D., Watson P., Johnston D. & Seo S. (2005). A National Building Industry Inventory. Procs ALCAS 2005, Australia.
  • Watson P., Jones D. & Mitchell P. (2005). Redefining the Life Cycle for a Building Sustainability Assessment Framework. Procs ALCAS 2005, Sydney, Australia.
  • Jones D., Watson P. & Mitchell P. (2005). Building Project Definition Needs. Procs ALCAS 2005 Conference: Sustainability Measures for Decision-support, Sydney, Australia.
  • Jones D. G., Watson P. & Mitchell P. (2004). Environmental assessment for commercial buildings: Stakeholder requirements & tool characteristics. Report 2001-006-B-01, Icon.Net, Australia.
  • Jones D. G., Watson P., Scuderi P. & Mitchell P. (2006). Ch 10: Clients' Building Product Ecoprofiling Needs. In Brown K., Hampson K. & Brandon P. (Eds), Clients Driving Construction Innovation: Moving Ideas into Practice. ISBN 1-7410712-8-3, Icon.Net, Australia.
  • Jones D. G., Watson P. & Mitchell P. (2004). Environmental Assessment for Commercial Buildings: Stakeholder Needs etc. Procs CIB Clients Driving Innovation, CRC CI, Australia.
  • Watson P., Jones D. G., Mitchell P. (2004). Are Australian Building Eco-Assessment Tools Meeting Stakeholder Decision-Making Needs? pp 371–377. In Contexts of Architecture, Procs 38th Architectural Science Ass & Intl Building Performance Simulation Ass, Australia.

A note on consensus

The NSW and Queensland Government, CRC CI, CSIRO, RMIT, ecospecifier and Evah Associates working on our LCA tools and databases since 1995 have been helped by experts contributing data on the broadest industry sectors. While individuals from other groups working to agree on LCA data development methods may disparage many existing LCA providers, such lack of agreement across industry groups is in the nature of competition and this historical reality is ongoing now and for the foreseeable future.

As LCA is a window on innovation as well as control systems it is unwise to apply self-serving excuses to delay uptake of the body of existing LCA and LCI to assess environmental performance and opportunity or ensure responsible planning and management. Doing no LCA is to actually implement the worst LCA results that do not measure, defend or increase the quality of a client's green outcomes in the interim.