Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the standardized frameworks widely used for evaluating the environmental impacts of buildings. Despite the guidance of international standards, namely, ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006, LCA results remain highly sensitive to functional unit selection – the metric for normalization.
This study evaluates how different functional unit selections influence comparative LCA results for nineteen case studies. Each case study includes multiple functionally equivalent design scenarios for building structural systems composed of reinforced concrete, mass timber, or structural steel. This study applies four different metrics (i.e., functional units) to report the environmental impact assessment results for each structural material option.
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