Buildings and Construction - Life Cycle Initiative

The Life Cycle Initiative, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (Global ABC) and the One Planet Network (OPN), is dedicated to advancing circularity and sustainability in the construction sector. Managed through a partnership with the Life Cycle Initiative and hosted by Global ABC, Materials Hub integrating life cycle thinking into the global effort to decarbonize the built environment. One of materials hub working group, Whole Life Cycle Policy Coalition (WLCP.Co), is an initiative that brings together the different activities of leading organisations working on promoting the measurement and reduction of Whole Life Cycle emissions in the built environment. This includes emissions from production and transport of constituent building materials, construction and use of buildings and infrastructure, end-of-life, material recovery and on-site energy generation.

Our approach is grounded in the principles of whole life cycle assessment (LCA), which evaluates the environmental, social, and economic aspects of buildings and construction from raw materials to disposal. Through initiatives like the “10 Whole Life Cycle Recommendations for the Buildings Breakthrough,” this work was driven by the Life Cycle Initiative working in parallel with the Whole Life Policy Coalition, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the Circular Built Environment Team led by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland and RMIT University.

Advocating a consensus driven set of actions for decision makers to consider, to meet the challenge of whole life cycle impacts in the building sector, these 10 recommendations were built through extensive stakeholder engagement with over 100 academic, policy and industry professionals from over 42 countries, aiming to promote Whole Life Cycle policy thinking on a global stage. This will help to raise awareness on the significance of addressing Whole Life Cycle impacts in implementing the Buildings Breakthrough objectives, and progress towards the Paris Agreement goals through near-zero emissions and resilient buildings.