Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a popular technique used to calculate the environmental impact of products. When used to evaluate buildings, it can help to identify and improve high-impact areas. For this reason, different regulations and building rating systems are integrating it into their scheme. With this increasing presence in the construction sector, it is desirable for those involved in decision making to have a basic knowledge of LCA.
This study reviewed 30 papers published recently where LCA was applied to buildings. The most relevant characteristics were identified, providing basic theory and an analysis of the tendencies for each of them. Although individually the cases were successful at making comparisons and ranking options, a comparison between the different cases and their results is considerably limited by the high variability in their characteristics, mainly methodology.
Based on these findings, it is proposed to increase the comparability of assessments by a widespread adoption of existing frameworks specific to buildings, development of regional databases and disclosure of sufficient information. Additionally, it is suggested for researchers and managers to use building-specific simplified LCA tools to make environmentally conscious decisions.
The content of this thesis can be useful to understand the basics of LCA and how it is currently performed and reported in journals. It is expected that it can also draw attention to the need of taking a step further towards the use of LCA for design, decision-making and benchmarking, leading to the creation of a greener built environment.

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