Environmental innovations in the construction sector and life cycle approach

Abstract

Innovation in the construction industry is often driven by the legislation and by the market mechanisms. After the lever of energy efficiency, new goals are looming on the horizon towards sustainability of interventions.
The essay aims to build, with particular reference to the Italian context, a framework of policies, of regulatory pathways and of the initiatives geared towards sustainability, which are determining and will determine the routes of environmental innovation. Central to all these paths is the life-cycle approach and the environmental evaluation based on LCA. Remarkable is the effort that research is producing to refine the assessment tools and the decision support tools toward a systemic vision of sustainability.