Environmental Impacts Analysis for Affordable Housing

The building industry has consumed a large portion of resources, and is responsible for most pollution. So many efforts have been taken to push the industry green, including green building. However, such practice is costly, which makes it unpractical for low income buyers. Hence, other measures should be taken when construct affordable buildings, so that the environmental impacts can be mitigate while the cost is still kept within the budgets. In this article, the authors carried out a particular study on a construction project targeted at low income people to assess its environmental impacts from the life cycle perspective, with the objective to identify the largest environmental impacts and take measures to control them. Cost and benefits for related measures were also analyzed. Results shows that green policy can also be applied to affordable housing. Both targets of environmental performance and cost budget can be met.