Economic aspects in environmental assessments are developing to include more information about the entire life cycle, such as life cycle costs and environmental impacts. Additionally, there is an increasing acknowledgement of new economic dimensions like circular and green economies, which are gaining importance as political priorities.

Another variation of life cycle assessments is the life cycle cost, which involves financial investment and operation. It includes forecasts of building performance based on construction, operation, and maintenance costs. This technique relies on the time value of money and expresses life cycle cost as a net present value. In other words, the total cost of building, operating, and maintaining the building is described as a single sum of money needed today to cover these costs over the study period selected for the life cycle costing exercise. The life cycle cost relationship between various building qualities ranges from the conventional type meeting minimum standards to what is currently considered sustainable. Investments in solar (photovoltaic) and wind power generation technologies may eventually result in cumulative lifecycle costs falling below the original construction cost, assuming future energy costs continue to escalate.