We are excited to share this exciting news about our good friend Kate Hickcox: her latest publication, Lighting Systems Integration with Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessments, is now available as a free download from Energy and Buildings until April 30, 2025. You can access it here.
Buildings are responsible for up to 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making them a central focus in climate mitigation strategies. Whole-building life cycle assessments (WBLCA) have become vital tools for evaluating these environmental impacts across the life span of a structure. However, despite progress in methodology and tool development, significant gaps remain—especially in accurately representing mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems like lighting.
This new study tackles those gaps head-on, zeroing in on luminaires as a critical but often underrepresented component in WBLCA workflows. Using the Department of Energy’s Medium Office Building prototype, the authors evaluate two technological pathways for incorporating lighting into WBLCA models. Their findings reveal that inconsistencies in workflow assumptions can lead to embodied carbon estimates varying by a factor of 2 to 10—resulting in whole-building impact differences of nearly 20%. These results highlight the pressing need for unified, standardized approaches to lighting integration in life cycle assessments.