Comparing the Biodiversity Impacts of Building Materials

Biodiversity is one aspect of a natural environment affected by the construction of buildings and the manufacture of building materials. However, the complexity of biodiversity impact assessment and the lack of a meaningful surrogate or indicator for biodiversity impacts have made meaningful discussion on construction's impact on biodiversity difficult. This paper reports on part of a multidisciplinary study that examined methods for comparing the biodiversity impacts of different land uses in the life cycle assessment of buildings and building materials. It summarizes the biodiversity impact assessment methods used in recent studies, outlines the major concepts of biodiversity management, expands on the temporal, spatial and other factors that need to be considered when comparing the biodiversity impacts of renewable and non-renewable materials in LCA, and proposes means by which this can be done. It concludes with three qualitative examples of the methods in action.