The role of durability and planned maintenance in the environmental assessment of buildings

The paper deals with a research that put in evidence the role of planned maintenance in the life cycle assessment of buildings. The aim of the paper is to discover the relationship between maintenance strategies, choices in design phase (durability) and environmental impacts. Environment and life cycle are strictly connected. "Sustainable" and "durable" are nearly synonymous. A building with a long life can dilute the environmental impacts caused by its production and construction. Long life can be pursued through durability of building components or through frequent planned maintenance interventions characterized by low impacts (energy and materials) and able to extend the buildings life. But these important issues are often neglected in environmental assessment, with the consequence of altered results of the assessment and therefore of erroneous design choices. The research analyses the different methods to assess the environmental profile of a building: multicriteria methods, with rating systems based on credits related to every criteria satisfied, and life cycle assessment methods, based on the quantification of environmental impacts during all life cycle stages. The multicriteria methods (as BREEAM, LEED, SBtool, Protocollo Itaca, etc.) don't put in correct evidence the role of durability and of maintenance in their rating systems