Campion, N A (2015) Advancing life cycle assessment: Perspectives from the building and healthcare industries. PhD thesis, University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Abstract
This research investigates the development of life cycle assessment (LCA) in the building and healthcare industries. The ultimate goal is to advance necessary contributions and provide strategic recommendations on the development of LCA in both industries. Because the building industry has progressed farther in terms of environmental and economic assessments than the healthcare industry, the lessons learned from past implementation and market adoption of building LCAs is essential for the future of healthcare LCAs. To achieve the goal of this dissertation, the evolution of LCA in each industry was studied, followed by recommendations and strategies for future sustainable development. To understand the building industry, three different studies are presented. The first building LCA study focused on building materials, comparing green building materials to traditional building materials and concluding that there is a quantitative need for LCA integration in the zero-energy building definition. The second LCA study integrated LCA with life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) as a complimentary tool for building owner decision-making. The last LCA study builds on the LCA/LCCA study and developed an integrated pathway linking LCA with a host of other environmental and economic tools that broaden the scope of building projects. To understand the healthcare industry, three different studies are presented. The use of LCA in the healthcare industry is relatively new; therefore the first study compared two different birth procedures to determine the high-impact areas within healthcare. The second LCA study focused on disposable products discussing streamlining efforts and strategies that could be applied universally across the healthcare industry. The last healthcare LCA study is a set of organizational techniques that can be applied to any healthcare institution attempting to reduce their environmental impacts; the more advanced green teams integrating LCA for quantitative information. The final study presented connects the building and healthcare industries, quantifying design decisions of evidence-based design and green building design through a host of metrics such as quality of care, utilities, and staff satisfaction. Both the building and healthcare industries have a tremendous amount of potential to enhance sustainable development utilizing life cycle assessment.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Bilec, M M |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | market; building industry; healthcare; utilities; building design; design decision; environmental impact; green building; integration; life cycle; sustainable development; owner; life cycle cost |
| Index terms: | utilities, integration, building design, owner, building industry, life cycle cost, dissertation, satisfaction, evolution, environmental impact, sustainable development, traditional building, healthcare industry, design decision, green building, implementation, strategy, streamlining, evidence-based design, life cycle assessment, green building material, decision-making, life cycle, zero-energy building, building material, lessons learned |
| Subjects: | professional development, sustainability and energy, contractual arrangements, management, health safety and environment, architectural design, environmental impact, environmental science, research methods, design practice, project delivery, sustainable engineering, design methods, building materials, organizational analysis, research dissemination and communication, value management, construction type, industry analysis, decision analysis, sociology |
| Topics: | Information Management, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Design Practice, Health and Safety, Project Management, Research Practice, Risk Management, Construction Technology, Stakeholder Management, Sustainability, Engineering Principles, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here