A framework for understanding the environmental impact of buildings in Australia

A major barrier to realising dramatic improvements in the environmental performance of buildings' structures is the inability to accurately quantify the environmental impacts of design alternatives. This paper presents a framework for determining the environmental performance of building materials and assemblies in Australia. Presently being developed under the working title of "Building Assemblies and Materials Scorecard (BAMS)", this project aims to establish a method and reporting format to assess the environmental performance of building materials and assemblies. Learning from international initiatives, BAMS uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to ensure consistent and science-based evaluation of construction options. The underlying LCA framework of BAMS is unique in that it combines a number of essential LCA ideas in one scheme. It is intended that in the short term BAMS will provide a common basis for materials assessment in a number of existing environmental building rating tools in Australia such as Green Star. The potential applications as a long term goal however, may be far more extensive.