Whole life costing: towards a sustainable built environment

Whole life costing (WLC) is a technique used to examine the direct and indirect costs of a constructed asset. Despite having been widely practised in other industries, its importance in the construction industry has been long overlooked. The barriers which prevent WLC being implemented by the construction industry include insufficient knowledge of implementing WLC, the unavailability of reliable cost and time related data and the inconsistencies in the underlying methodology for WLC. Only recently, increased concern over climate change and economic crisis has led to the recognition of the importance of making right decisions in the construction industry.