Life cycle assessment of pre-cast and conventional construction in low-cost residential houses

• Main Authors: Balbanero, Raffiel Jasper C., Dela Cruz, Ian Kevin H., Garbanzos, Sergi S., Robles, Louise Anne U.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Building materials; Construction industry; Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6450
• Institution: De La Salle University

The construction industry is currently on the rise due to high demands of commercial and residential buildings alike, especially in developing countries such as the Philippines. The increase in these processes also have their own adverse effects in the environment, which can later prove to be fatal and irreversible if not handled appropriately. Because of this, proper analysis of construction methods, namely the CHB and precast method, in their relation to the environment are conducted. The life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the potential environmental aspects associated with a product or service. Using the Ecolnvent calculator, a Europe based database, impact categories of each component used in both constructions can be calculated. This will be adopted together with the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision-making approach in order to obtain the weighted values from different professional opinions. Through the use of both the normalized values and weighted factors, the structural sustainability index (SSI) can be performed, wherein comparison of overall impact can be possible as it allows the correlation of values with different units. The researchers arrived at the conclusion that the CHB model is more environmentally harmful compared to that of the precast model.