Economic models used in consequential life cycle assessment: a literature review

Abstract

The construction sector is a key actor for achieving the sustainable development goals, particularly from an environmental point of view, due to the significant sector's contribution to energy consumption, greenhouse gas and pollutants emissions, waste generation, resources depletion etc. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a multi-criteria tool to assess environmental impacts, preventing the impact transferring from one life cycle stage to another and thus is widely used to support decision-making. Consequential LCA (CLCA) can be particularly relevant for decisions involving non-marginal changes and may have an important role in supporting decision-makers of the construction sector by giving a wider comprehension of the environmental impacts associated with the changes caused by their decisions. Particularly when assessing large-scale consequences, it is recommended to couple an economic model to the CLCA methodology to assess the changes in the background system. Therefore, this research aims at reviewing the CLCA works applied to the construction sector and the use of economic models in CLCA for assessing non-marginal changes. For that, the review is divided in two parts: the first reviews the CLCA works and papers in the construction sector; and the second part reviews CLCA studies that assess non-marginal changes, regardless the activity or sector.