Conference Editor
Jianshun Zhang; Edward Bogucz; Cliff Davidson; Elizabeth Krietmeyer
Keywords:
Dynamic life cycle assessment, school building, value choice
Location
Syracuse, NY
Event Website
http://ibpc2018.org/
Start Date
24-9-2018 10:30 AM
End Date
24-9-2018 12:00 PM
Description
Lack of spatial and temporal flexibility is a well-known limitation of current life cycle assessment (LCA). Exclusion of human and time consideration in LCA can also limit the potential of results. This paper explicitly proposes a dynamic life cycle framework and assessment model and demonstrated the potential importance of the method by integrating the cultural theory of risk. Cultural theory (CT) of risk was developed by anthropologist Mary Douglas and is originally a societal social anthropology approach based on the structure and functioning of groups within societies. Different society produces its own selected view of the natural environment, a view which influences its choice of danger worth attention. Applying the set of views of natural environment helps us to understand how occupants behave and make important decisions that produce substantial environmental impacts during the building use phase. Cultural theory results in five archetypes of people: the individualist, hierarchist, egalitarian, hermit, and fatalist. Each archetype reflects a composition of ideologies, cultural biases, social relationships, moral beliefs, and concerns of interest. One of the reasons to apply CT in this LCA research is the fact that the different archetypes can be considered as theoretical constructs that facilitate a comprehensive classification of decision makers in LCA. A case study of an elementary school is used to illustrate the importance of the method and demonstrate the differences between conventional static LCA and dynamic LCA. The results showed a noticeable difference and illustrated some unique environmental impact trends by integrating value choice and human factors in the LCA model. The findings suggest changes during a building’s lifetime can influence the analysis results to a greater degree, and that long-term indicators and short-term indicators have different impacts on results. Therefore, adapting a dynamic framework could increase the applicability of LCA in decision-making and policymaking.
Recommended Citation
HU, Ming, "Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment Integrating Cultural Value" (2018). International Building Physics Conference 2018. 2.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14305/ibpc.2018.ms-1.02
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment Integrating Cultural Value
Syracuse, NY
Lack of spatial and temporal flexibility is a well-known limitation of current life cycle assessment (LCA). Exclusion of human and time consideration in LCA can also limit the potential of results. This paper explicitly proposes a dynamic life cycle framework and assessment model and demonstrated the potential importance of the method by integrating the cultural theory of risk. Cultural theory (CT) of risk was developed by anthropologist Mary Douglas and is originally a societal social anthropology approach based on the structure and functioning of groups within societies. Different society produces its own selected view of the natural environment, a view which influences its choice of danger worth attention. Applying the set of views of natural environment helps us to understand how occupants behave and make important decisions that produce substantial environmental impacts during the building use phase. Cultural theory results in five archetypes of people: the individualist, hierarchist, egalitarian, hermit, and fatalist. Each archetype reflects a composition of ideologies, cultural biases, social relationships, moral beliefs, and concerns of interest. One of the reasons to apply CT in this LCA research is the fact that the different archetypes can be considered as theoretical constructs that facilitate a comprehensive classification of decision makers in LCA. A case study of an elementary school is used to illustrate the importance of the method and demonstrate the differences between conventional static LCA and dynamic LCA. The results showed a noticeable difference and illustrated some unique environmental impact trends by integrating value choice and human factors in the LCA model. The findings suggest changes during a building’s lifetime can influence the analysis results to a greater degree, and that long-term indicators and short-term indicators have different impacts on results. Therefore, adapting a dynamic framework could increase the applicability of LCA in decision-making and policymaking.
https://surface.syr.edu/ibpc/2018/MS1/2
Comments
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