ABSTRACT
The Environmental Quality (EQ) of a building product is a concept that includes both objective and subjective aspects. Taking advantage of the later, the LCA model has been modified to be used as a help in the selection of design alternatives improving new or existing building products’ EQ. System boundaries are defined on the basis of the practitioner’s design constraints and goals, rather than on deceptively objective rules. Incompatibilities with building products characteristics are discussed and addressed. Most of the resulting developments can also be used to enforce openness in classical LCA. Tested with industrial partners on real products, this model has proved be well adapted to their current practice and needs.
