Activity-based life cycle analysis of a curtain wall supply for reducing its environmental impact

Life-Cycle Assessment has been used extensively in the construction industry to assess the environmental impacts of building materials. Attributional LCA considers processes in a supply chain which allows users to identify a process to improve to minimize the environmental impacts. However, the level of detail adopted in traditional attributional LCA is aggregate, not appropriate for process improvement efforts in the construction project context which is characterized as a complex system. This paper proposes Activity-based LCA (ABLCA) which adopts the methodology of the activity-based costing system to carry out the assessment and analysis of environmental impacts for the life cycle. The research carried out a case study on the curtain wall supply chain. The outcome of inventory analysis for each activity and environmental impact assessment showed the curtain wall supply chain process made an impact on five environmental impact categories: global warming air, acidification air, HH criteria air; eutrophication air, and photochemical smog air. With comparison to the outcome of environmental impact assessment from existing LCA, the proposed management system to investigate environmental impacts was addressed. The proposed ABLCA enables management to develop an environmental-impacts-reduction plan focusing on critical activities.