1. Introduction
Sustainable construction is a response to the growing awareness of the negative impact of buildings on the environment. Designers (architects and engineers) have an important stake as the selection of materials and construction systems are now of great importance. Due to this significant impact of the construction sector on the environment [1], different measures are now being taken to assess construction activity from a strictly environmental perspective. According to some studies, around 20% of the total impacts are related to manufacturing, construction, demolition processes and final disposal of building materials, elements and systems [2].Long operation periods, versatility, high structural complexity and material comprehensiveness mean that buildings are treated asintricate and unique objects in ecological studies [3]. Althoughrecent years have seen vigorous scientific evaluation of the envi-ronmental impact associated with buildings, there is still a lackof standardized environmental analysis procedures that focus onconstruction technologies. In this sense, the application of the lifecycle assessment (LCA) [4,5] helps to clarify the consequences forthe environment of using certain building materials and elementssuch as composites, and LCA is now recognized as an important tool∗Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954556591; fax: +34 954 557018.E-mail address: cgalan@us.es (C. Galán-Marín).for the environmental assessment of solutions in the constructionindustry.