The development of green building performance assessment tool (gbpat)
by Yoo, Young Jun, Ph.D., THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON, 2014, 300 pages; 3609740
Abstract:
This dissertation consists of two studies: (1) establishment of an evaluation tool framework to determine the proper investment to make the building LEED-certified with the consideration of the initial investment cost using the statistical analyses of integrated Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and (2) development of a Green Building Performance Assessment Tool (GBPAT). The first research effort demonstrated that the initial incremental investment was not closely related with the earned points on Energy & Atmosphere (EA) and Water Efficiency (WE) credits but was clearly related with energy-related points. The Cost Effectiveness Index (CEI) proposed in this study was found to represent the net savings of the life cycle costs and cost effectiveness for a green building better than LEED. LCA and LCCA methods would be adopted for GBPAT to address these issues. GBPAT would provide the information that helps all participants, such as building owners, building managers, building occupants, and society who are involved and impacted by building performance. They have their own demands on the information of building performance, such as affordable financial investment, expected financial benefits, lower environmental impacts, and better indoor environment. Users should be able to make a strategic decision to evaluate various alternative designs or retrofitting schemes for sustainable building. Moreover, applying social costs to total LCC of green building would lead to a reduction in environmental burden to society and significantly improve indoor environmental quality affecting the health of occupants since users are able to recognize that these social costs may impact the entire building LCC.