Assessing the sustainability of buildings through quantitative and qualitative tools [Avaliando a sustentabilidade das edificações através de ferramentas qualitativas e quantitativas]

Abstract

In the face of major environmental impacts caused by the construction industry, we have seen the increasing use of various tools to assess the life cycle of buildings. The purpose of this article is to present and identify the main qualitative and quantitative tools along with their strengths and limitations. Qualitative tools are based on the relative environmental performance of the building which is expressed in a single final count, and its biggest advantage the agility of the informations. The Quantitative tools are more accurate and have preparation of inventories of material and energy flows, not considering all environmental aspects evaluated due to lack of data. However, there is a large international consensus that qualitative methodologies are taking as reference the Qualitative methodologies and that a tool can perfectly complement each other.