PERCEPTIONS OF A SME BUILDING SECTOR TOWARDS PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVEMENT BASED IN LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

The construction industry generates large environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of their products. Companies and particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are forced to be competitive and add value to their proposals to survive. A way to add value is through the improvement of the environmental performance of buildings, to save time, money and materials. In this paper, we inspect the perceptions of SMEs to the proposed improvements based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The methodology consists of 3 phases: simplified life cycle assessment of modular housing, improvement of the proposals attending LCA results, and evaluation of the proposals by the company, based on criteria determined by them. The results of this case are exploratory about willingness to accept environmental improvements, and this show a lack of understanding about the concept of life cycle, although a positive disposition to incorporate environmental criteria into design decisions. However, the implementation of improvements based on the LCA in the studied case must produce short-term results, not influence the relationship with suppliers, and not affect quality perceived by final customer.