Expanded LCA scope

Nordic Experts Discuss Expanding the Scope of LCA in Building Regulation

Publiceret 10-08-2026

Nordic experts shared insights on the future role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in building regulation, including renovation projects, circularity and environmental impacts beyond greenhouse gas emissions.

Focus groups bring together Nordic expertise

As national LCA requirements continue to develop across the Nordic countries and Europe, questions are emerging about whether they should be expanded to cover renovation projects and a broader range of environmental impacts.

To explore these topics, the Climate Work Package in Nordic Sustainable Construction recently held three focus groups meetings on the future scope of LCA in building regulation.

Participants came from across the Nordics and represented top experts from industry, academia, government and LCA tool providers. The discussions focused on methodologies and the scope for renovation LCAs, circularity, biodiversity and the potential expansion of LCA requirements beyond greenhouse gas emissions.

Renovation LCAs can increase visibility

A clear message from the discussions was that LCAs for renovation projects can make climate impacts more visible and support better decision-making. Participants noted that renovation LCAs could help show the benefits of retrofitting existing buildings rather than building new.

Participants also discussed methodological questions related to renovation LCAs, including project typologies, trigger points and system boundaries. Renovation projects vary widely in scale, from minor maintenance to major rebuilding, making it difficult to apply a single approach across all projects.

At the same time, participants emphasised that the Nordic countries are not yet ready for limit values for renovation LCAs.

“…what I've been struggling with, and I think that's what a regulatory body could struggle with, is actually knowing what renovation projects need to be declared.”

Balancing ambition and feasibility

The focus groups highlighted the need to balance methodological rigour with operational feasibility. If requirements become too complex or too strict, they may create unintended consequences, such as discouraging renovation, delaying energy retrofits or adding administrative burden without reducing emissions.

Several participants stressed that regulation should start from a clear purpose. The chosen methodology, scope and trigger points should then be designed to support that purpose in practice.

“ …what is the regulation? What is it being used for? What is the goal? What is the policy that the methodology should serve? Because we are not doing LCA for being the world's best in getting the 6th decimal right, but the LCA would have to be a piece in the puzzle of regulation that has a certain goal, that's hopefully democratically set.”

Beyond greenhouse gas emissions

Participants also discussed whether LCA requirements should include environmental impacts beyond global warming potential and whether circularity objectives should be addressed through LCA. Biodiversity loss was seen as highly urgent, but participants also pointed to major methodological and data challenges.

Compared with greenhouse gas impact, data and methods for other impact categories are less mature. Participants noted that harmonised approaches are still lacking in several areas, particularly for biodiversity-related assessments. Including additional impact categories in building-level LCA could increase uncertainty, reduce transparency and make results harder to interpret.

Some participants warned against expecting LCA to solve all environmental challenges. For issues such as biodiversity or disassembly potential, other policy tools may sometimes be better suited than expanding the LCA calculation itself.

“…there are some ideas that LCA calculations will solve all the environmental issues and problems. If you just calculate, you will find where the problems are. And of course, this is true in some cases, but when we talk about regulation, maybe that is not the most effective way.”

Next steps

The Climate Work Package, led by the Icelandic Housing, Construction and Planning authority, is currently analysing the focus group data. The results will contribute to a Nordic publication that explores current perspectives, opportunities and challenges related to an expanded scope of LCA in building regulation.

The results are expected to be published early next year.