Teaching Life-Cycle Thinking in Construction Materials and Methods: Evaluation of and Deployment Strategies for Life-Cycle Assessment in Construction Engineering and Management Education

摘要

Currently more than 300 construction engineering and management (CEM) postsecondary programs exist across the United States. Grad uates of these programs support a $500 billion industry that repre sents nearly 3.4% of the nation's GDP (Bureau of Economic Analysis 2011). According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the built environment consumes 40% of global raw materials (Davis 2007). Furthermore, for a new facility, the acquisition of materials and products accounts for 50 to 60% of the construction costs [Con struction Industry Institute (CII) 1988].