Developing a framework for calculating LCA normalization factors for the State of Qatar

Abstract

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) has recently emerged as a powerful tool for assessing the environmental impact of materials, systems and processes used in building construction. With its ability to clarify the ambiguities of the conventional wisdom related to sustainable practices, LCA provides quantifiable results encompassing every environmental effect associated with the "cradle to grave" journey of a product. To make better use of LCA results in decision making, normalization is recommended following the impact assessment step. Normalization is a step carried out in order to compare results of every indicator under the LCA impact categories with some temporal and spatial reference. The objective of this paper is to present a framework for calculating the normalization factors for the State of Qatar with reference to annual total emissions or resource consumption per capita. The data required to perform this task is identified along with its sources and any possible gaps. These gaps are addressed using the appropriate methods in order to develop guidelines for establishing a comprehensive record of emissions and resource consumption for the State of Qatar. As a result, the proposed framework will be used to calculate normalization factors for impact categories chosen by the Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) as the basis for the Qatari LCA database currently under development.