Vasakronan has produced an office building were seven of the floors are mainly made in concrete and two floors are mainly made of wooden materials.  As Vasakronan had little previous experience with wooden construction works they were interested in comparing the different production methods from an environmental and economic perspective.

The main purpose of the project was to analyze the long-term environmental impact of different building methods with alternative design and production as well as material choice and on-site systems. A secondary purpose was to assess the economic consequences of different construction solutions. The goals were to:

• provide advice and suggestions on how different material choice, construction solutions and assembly methods can be used from their environmental and economic properties.
• find environmental hot-spots in the building process.
• contribute with knowledge and experience to develop methods regarding life cycle assessment (LCA) and calculation of life cycle cost (LCC) for building projects. 
• compare differences between constructions in concrete and wood.

An LCA was carried out on the whole building and LCA and LCC calculation were conducted to compare the environmental impact and cost of concrete and wooden constructions.  The results include global warming potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, photooxidants creation potential and present costs. The data were collected by the contractors during production to ensure that the results are based on the finished building and not assumptions made during the design stage.

The report shows the difficulties that arise during life cycle studies of buildings but also provides guidance how to solve them in this particular case, which can be used as a base for continued development of methods.