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The pressure to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings over their lifetime has driven certification bodies and the government to require a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, LCA is a data-intensive and time-consuming process which complicates design activities, especially when performing a Whole Building LCA (WBLCA). Software tools can simplify the assessment by providing information more aligned with the users’ needs. This research surveyed 178 building designers who utilise WBLCA software as a decision-making tool. The aim was to identify patterns in the usage of the software and provide guidance to WBLCA software developers. For this purpose, statistical analyses identified the software preferences within each group of users, e.g., the users’ geographical location, professional background and years of WBLCA experience, among others. The results identified challenges faced by the construction industry, such as the need for more efficient communication among stakeholders. Therefore, attributes that allow designers to share information were rated as the most valuable. Two main groups of users were identified, and guidelines were drawn based on the profiles of the groups. Improving software support to designers will enable WBLCA to be integrated more efficiently with BPP by improving the users’ experience and their ability to make more informed decisions.

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Environmental impact assessment (EIA) tools are key mechanisms that link the environmental context of a project to the decision-making framework. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and green building rating systems (GBRS) are the two approaches commonly used to holistically analyze the environmental performance of the whole building. While GBRS are mostly based on a checklist with many qualitative criteria, LCA compels the practitioner to base the analyses in numerical evidence, which facilitates the comparison between design choices. Some rating systems, such as LEED, BREEAM and Green Star, have been incorporating LCA as one of their criteria. This practice tends to increase in criteria-based tools, because of the market and governmental claims for better awareness of the construction industry ecological impacts. Therefore, the goal of this article is to discuss both whole building life cycle EIA tools, life cycle assessment (LCA) and green building rating system (GBRS), comparing their methodological concepts as well as the effort of combining both approaches. It was noticed that although there are many differences between EIA tools, the combination of both approaches would bring substantial benefits in identifying and mitigating the potential environmental impacts of buildings. Therefore, further research is needed to create a design process framework that unifies GBRS and LCA methodologies, providing a more comprehensive overview of a building's environmental impacts.

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