BCIS guide supports life cycle costing standard

RICS Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) and the British Standards Institution (BSi) have created a guide aimed at firms that want to calculate the whole cost of a building’s life at the outset of a project.

The Standardised Method of Life Cycle Costing for Construction Procurement, the organisations claim, will save money as well as help produce more sustainable buildings for the future.

Joe Martin, executive director of BCIS, said: “It provides practitioners with a clear scope and structure for presenting the costs, and clients with a checklist to determine the costs that they wish to see in their life cycle cost reports and a means of benchmarking costs in a consistent manner.”

To implement sustainability in their buildings clients need to know the total cost of their investment in the building, rather than just its initial cost.

The guide therefore aims to provide a UK standard cost data structure for life cycle costing which will align with the BCIS Standard Form of Capital Cost Analysis2, ISO 15686-5 and industry recognised occupancy cost codes.

It will also create an industry accepted methodology, to facilitate more accurate and consistent application of life cycle costing estimation simplification and demystification through practical guidance, instructions and definitions.

The guide will help clients focus more on setting accurate budgets which optimise their lifecycle costs, from both a whole life value and sustainable development perspective, says the BCIS.

Martin added: “The need to deliver sustainable buildings means that we need to consider the future ramifications current decisions about buildings will have.

“To make these decisions in a rational way we need to calculate the life cycle cost.”