Environmental impact of materials

Not only use of energy and water has an important impact on the sustainability of buildings, also the materials contribute to the sustainability. Their impact traditionally is assessed through LCA or life cycle assessment. According to the ISO 14040 a good LCA consists of 4 subsequent steps:

1. definition of the goal and scope of the LCA: of what specifically are you determining the environmental impact?
2. a life cycle inventory (LCI): an inventory of 'all' in and outcoming fluxes: which natural resources are used, how much water or land is used, which gases are emitted, etc.
3. a translation of the inventory into impacts on environment, health, biodiversity,... 
4. finally, an interpretation of the results

For the European context, different databases with LCA data of (building) materials are available:
ECOINVENT: a large, well documented and transparent LCI database from the Swiss ecoinvent Competence Centre. The LCI data are online available for a fee, but all documentation reports are accessible free of charge (for some, registration as guest is needed).
GEMIS: a large German database, available in German and English, completely available free of charge
A tool, especially made for eco-design, is the Ecolizer 2.0, available in Dutch and English. The tool is online available free of charge. An easy-to-use paper version can be ordered for a small fee at OVAM