Percepciones de una pyme del sector de la construcción hacia la implementación de mejoras basadas en el análisis del ciclo de vida

Abstract

The construction industry generates large

environmental impacts throughout the life

cycle of their products. Companies and

particularly Small and Medium Enterprises

(SMEs) are forced to be competitive and add

value to their proposals to survive. A way to

add value is through the improvement of the

environmental performance of buildings, to

save time, money and materials.

In this paper, we inspect the perceptions of

SMEs to the proposed improvements based

on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The methodology

consists of 3 phases: simplified life cycle

assessment of modular housing, improvement

of the proposals attending LCA results, and

evaluation of the proposals by the company,

based on criteria determined by them.

The results of this case are exploratory

about willingness to accept environmental

improvements, and this show a lack of

understanding about the concept of life cycle,

although a positive disposition to incorporate

environmental criteria into design decisions.

However, the implementation of improvements

based on the LCA in the studied case must

produce short-term results, not influence the

relationship with suppliers, and not affect

quality perceived by final customer.