Construction Costs vs. Life Cycle Costs of Buildings – Sustainability Angle! Other

We spend millions of dollars on the initial construction of the building by putting in state-of-the-art façade and systems, but cringe and penny- pinch, when it comes to setting up robust systems for operations and monitoring of the building itself. Studies indicate that the initial design and construction cost for a building constitutes less than 15-20% of the total life cycle cost of a building over a 30-year period.

That means buildings spend close to 55-60% of the buildings cost over the years in operations and maintenance activities, repair and retrofit initiatives and replacements, which is much more that what they spend during initial construction. So, anything that they will do to closely monitor and improve can go a long way to reducing and optimizing the money spent in the future towards O&M, repairs and replacements!

Most often than not, buildings don’t monitor their performance. Some buildings do monitor, but are unsure if they are monitoring the right parameters and the extent to which they monitor. What do they do after monitoring and collecting data? These are questions that need answers to ensure building performance.