Benchmarks for life cycle costs and life cycle assessment of residential buildings

A new certification system for buildings called Bewertungssystem Nachhaltiges Bauen/Deutsches Gütesiegel für Nachhaltiges Bauen (BNB/DGNB) was developed in Germany with the aim of evaluating the sustainable quality level of buildings. This rating system incorporates basic economic benchmarks (life cycle costs-LCC) and environmental inputs and outputs (life cycle assessment-LCA) caused by the construction, use and end-of-life phases of buildings in different use categories. The BNB adaptation process is explained and benchmarks for the use category residential buildings are presented. A first test application is presented to demonstrate the use of BNB benchmarks.