Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Today's buildings are becoming increasingly energy efficient. From a life cycle perspective, the environmental focus is shifting towards the materials used to produce the buildings. The material production effect will increase relatively to how much better a building is in reducing energy use and maintenance activities during its operational stage. The interest for the life cycle aspect of material production for the building industry is therefore increasing rapidly. European standard for calculations of environmental performance in buildings and building products, EN 15978 and EN 15804, point out the life cycle perspective. To achieve the highest ranking in the LEED and the BREEAM building certification systems a life cycle assessment is necessary. Despite this, relatively few life cycle analyses are routinely being performed in the prefabricated concrete production. In a development project in cooperation between StruSoft AB and Abetong, finances by SBUF (Development Fund of the Swedish Construction Industry), a proof of concept software solution was tested and evaluated.