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Sustainability and Life Cycle Cost Analysis

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education
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Definition

Sustainability is the goal to create and maintain conditions suitable for human life and well-being. Life cycle cost (LCC) analysis is a method for calculating the total cost of ownership of an asset (e.g., a building) over its entire useful life span. It is also referred to as “cradle to grave” cost analysis and is related to life cycle assessment (LCA). Costs included in LCC are the financial costs to design, build, operate, and dispose of the asset as well as the environmental and social costs associated with it, for which LCA can provide estimates. Designing assets with low LCC and LCA impacts thus serves the overarching goal of sustainability.

Introduction

Sustainability is broadly defined as the goal to “create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (EPA 2018). Closely related to sustainability is the paradigm of sustainable development, which the 1987 Brundtland Commission...

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Correspondence to Tanja Srebotnjak .

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Srebotnjak, T. (2019). Sustainability and Life Cycle Cost Analysis. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11352-0_391

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