Lifecycle assessment for sustainable design options of a commercial building in Shanghai

Buildings are long-lasting products which have huge impacts on the environment during their whole lives. The design of buildings should take into consideration long-term environmental and economic benefits. A life cycle assessment approach is developed and demonstrated in a case study-the strategic design of a Flagship Store in Shanghai. Industrial practitioners were invited to the feasibility study. Their opinions were included in the life cycle assessment for the first time. The economic analysis takes account of not only the capital costs of the design options but also the running costs during the building's economic life cycle. The methodology adopted is an integrated life cycle assessment process including life cycle costing, multi-criteria decision making and group decision making methods. The workshops are successful in terms of educational opportunity for the practitioners and have obtained good feedbacks. The top 10 sustainable design options after the life cycle assessment process were chosen by the practitioners as the compulsory design strategies in their global environmental development agenda, whilst the other 32 design options as optional design solution for the international retailer's future stores. The life cycle assessment tool demonstrated by a case study was proven to be a simple and efficient design tool in practice, and therefore it can be adopted in other projects to assist the decision makers. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.