Carbon Leadership Forum
LCA Practice Guide
Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study identified a need in the industry for standardized and accessible guidance on how to conduct an LCA of a building. The LCA Practice Guide was developed to address this need. The LCA Practice Guide and supporting files are provided below.
| Component of Practice Guide | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|
Practice Guide |
This is the primary document of the LCA Practice Guide. It introduces the concept of life cycle assessment to building professionals and explains how to determine the environmental impacts of a building step by step. Version 1.1 (June 2019) is the second update following the original publication in June 2018 and contains a roadmap diagram, which is also provided separately below. | Download (PDF) |
| Technical Guidance | This document is directed at LCA experts who are looking for technical recommendations to support the development of LCAs of buildings in North America. Note that the version dated 2018-07-09 has the same content as the version dated 2018-06-19, but with different title page formatting that includes sponsor logos. | Download (PDF) |
| Taxonomy for Whole Building LCA | This is a proposed information scheme for reporting information relating to LCAs of buildings. | Download (PDF) (not yet available) |
| Gingerbread House LCA Example | This is a simple example demonstrating the LCA process using a gingerbread house. | Download (PDF) |
| CLF Resources | The CLF Resources page contains supplemental materials created by the CLF. Some items are under development. | Link to CLF Supplementary Resources |
| External Resources | The External Resources page contains references to online and print resources for whole building LCA, and example LCA reports. | Link to External Resources |
| Road Map to Reducing Building Life Cycle Impacts | This timeline contains suggested actions and milestones for reducing building life cycle impacts | Two versions for download: |