Life cycle cost analysis: Green vs conventional buildings in Sri Lanka

Recently, the focus on green buildings has fore-fronted in the Sri Lankan construction industry. The green building investors continue to focus on minimising construction cost and fail to appreciate the impact on life cycle economic performances. The construction cost of green buildings tends to be higher than traditional buildings, with a comparatively lower operation and maintenance costs. Therefore, this study assesses the life cycle cost of green certified industrial manufacturing building and that of a conventional building to establish the impact of sustainable features on life-cycle cost. The quantitative data on construction, running and end of life cycle costs of the selected green and conventional buildings were collected and analysed using Net Present Value. The analysis shows that the construction cost of green industrial manufacturing building is about 28% higher than that of a conventional building. However, operation, maintenance and end of life cycle costs are in the range of 35 to 41%, 26 to 30% and 6 to 18% respectively lower than that of conventional building. The study found that the life-cycle cost of green building is 24 to 28% less compared to conventional building. It is expected that the outcome of this research would contribute to the organisational learning of green built environment and thereby uplift the use of sustainable construction in Sri Lanka.