Following three consecutive months of signs of greater stability in design activity, the Architecture Billings Index fell, dropping more than six points.

Life cycle assessment was the focus of a recent training program sponsored by the Metal Construction Association, Glenview, Ill. The Aug. 20 session in Chicago was presented for MCA members by Jennifer Cooper and Jeff Yorzyk of Five Winds International, a multidisciplinary consulting firm serving clients in North America, Europe and Asia. Cooper and Yorzyk describe LCA as a holistic impact assessment tool that considers the entire value chain involved in producing a product. Creating an LCA for a product requires life cycle thinking, which Cooper and Yorzyk said involves looking at quantifiable areas and evaluating the total impact of a product on the environment. In part, LCA’s increased visibility was brought about by the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council’s intent to eventually award points in its LEED rating system for selecting construction products or entire buildings whose LCA values meet a certain level. An LCA calculation is generally based on an assessment tool that generates a single numerical value for assemblies or entire buildings. “The USGBC bringing LCA into LEED will continually strengthen LCA because it will be increasingly used, scrutinized and improved,” Cooper noted. “At this point LCA is not going to necessarily answer all the questions, but it will enable you to identify significant environmental impacts, as well as benefits and priorities, and put you in a better position to answer questions you may get about your products,” she told MCA members. For more information about LCA and MCA’s plan for future programs, check out the November issue of Metal Construction News at www.metalconstructionnews.com.