Abstract
This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art on embodied carbon and life cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings in the context of Latin America. It reviews the current situation by assessing existing policies and initiatives aimed at, or related to, the themes of embodied carbon and life cycle environmental impacts caused by buildings. Additionally, it investigates the availability of geographically relevant data, which forms the basis of reliable and realistic assessments. An in-depth review of available sources reveals a severe scarcity of building-related data in Latin America. To this end, we suggest three methods to sensibly adapt available world data to Latin America as a temporary measure to utilise until more robust datasets are developed by governments and other stakeholders. Each of the methods relates to one of the three main approaches currently used in LCAs, namely, process-based, input-output and hybrid – thus allowing more accurate assessments across the whole spectrum of LCA methodologies. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future efforts and with a plea to all stakeholders to work together for a quicker transition to sustainable built environments in Latin America.
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Notes
- 1.
Strict and widely agreed-upon classifications about which countries are part of the two regions do not seem to exist. For the purpose of this chapter, Central America comprises countries geographically situated between Mexico and Panama, whereas South America includes all remaining countries going southward. The two regions, i.e. Central and South America, will be referred to as Latin America.
- 2.
In this chapter, regional is referred to a wider area than that of a single country. For example, Central America would be considered a region which is made of all individual countries (e.g. Mexico, Costa Rica, etc.).
- 3.
The reader will see that in many parts of the chapter, the original Spanish terminology has been given. This choice was made to allow the interested reader to search for those sources, links and documents on the web as they would not come up if searching for the English translation.
- 4.
These are sustainable territorial development (1), sustainable cities (2), sustainable and efficient construction (3), productivity and competitiveness of the construction sector (4), liveability of new and existing dwellings (5), integrated energy management (6), and efficient construction materials (7).
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- 6.
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Pomponi, F., Campos, L.M. (2018). Embodied and Life Cycle Carbon Assessment of Buildings in Latin America: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions. In: Pomponi, F., De Wolf, C., Moncaster, A. (eds) Embodied Carbon in Buildings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72796-7_22
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