Analysis of sustainability assessment of building windows for italian residential market: life cycle analysis and LEED

The policies of the products have always been aimed to create products good for their functionality, design and innovation. Actually, as energy and natural resources become scarcer and more expensive, and as climate change becomes a growing concern, companies are investing in eco-friendly products and technologies. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is here applied to assess sustainability of a PVC window by relating it to the window size. Two functional units were thus considered to evaluate the quality of the environmental impacts expressed in terms of Carbon Footprint: per piece and per square meter of seethrough surface. It resulted that at the change of the type of window the sustainability impact value per square meter changes considerably. We therefore propose a new criterion of the analysis to provide a reliable assessment approach that can be used in the evaluation of the environmental performance of buildings. Test has been carried out on several samples of windows to prove the soundness of the approach. The sustainability of window can also be assessed with reference to the requirements of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), one of the most used Environmental Sustainability Assessment for Buildings. LEED is not an environmental label for products, but products can help the building to obtain the certification; so it is important to evaluate the performance of the windows related to the sustainability of the building and to inform consumers in order to facilitate their use in projects spreading environmental sustainability certification for buildings.