ABSTRACT
The objectives of sustainable development are now a central part of most regional strategies, and it has become important to find appropriate methods to attain these objectives. The integration of an environmental dimension into planning is based on some form of life cycle assessment (LCA), and similar techniques can also be applied to achieve economic and social sustainability. Today, more and more economic and econometric models use life cycle approaches to evaluate pathways to regional sustainability. Life cycle costing (LCC) is a new element of LCA that is especially useful for making choices between project alternatives that, despite fulfilling desired performance requirements, will have different cost implications over their life cycles. Such techniques can highlight the comparative eco-efficiency of various alternatives, making economic analysis an effective tool for measuring the path to regional sustainability.
