Investigation of price banks and life cycle inventoriesfor pan-European life cycle costanalysis system

When comparing alternative strategies for a project, owners and users should not only consider the initial capital cost, but also the running costs which are incurred over its operating life. Total life cycle cost (LCC) is a recognized approach to identify the future total cost implications of individual building elements or the entire building in the future. However, as sustainability gained significance in the construction industry, it became clear that LCC is not the only the only factor to be considered. Life cycle assessment (LCA) of a building is also of great importance. LCA need to be performed to determine the effect of the construction and constructed structure on the environment (i.e., CO2 emission). To provide comparable LCC and LCA results and outputs, significant amount of work is needed to normalize data in existing sources. This paper describes the characteristics of the current databases that can be integrated with the Pan-European life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) system, which is an ongoing EU 7th framework CILECCTA (Construction Industry LifE Cycle Cost Analysis software) project. The goal of the CILECCTA project is to develop an online decision support system for assessment and identification sustainable and economic options for pan-European construction and renovation projects. This tool will provide comparable LCC and LCA results for different project options and assist users in selecting the most appropriate option. It will be compatible with various price banks which supply necessary data for LCC, and life cycle inventories (LCIs) that provide data for LCA across Europe and beyond. The tool will also allow for consideration of uncertainty (e.g., in design and functionality), which is inherent in construction, renovation and through life cycle of a structure. The objective of this paper is to describe the main characteristics (e.g., classification systems, data availability) of existing price banks and LCA databases in Europe.