Sustainable development is an essential concept for businesses, governments and people today. Construction is one of the largest economic sectors in the world and directly affects nature. Therefore, it is important to understand how construction and sustainable development interact. This work aims to analyze this interaction through a comparative feasibility study between collective or individualized cold water distribution systems in enterprises. The main objective is to find a model that optimizes the environmental costs with the financial costs, something that has not been much explored in the literature. The method used to achieve the objective is a case study conducted with buildings in the neighborhood of Icaraí, in the city of Niterói/RJ. First, to study the environmental impact, the Life Cycle Analysis of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubes used in the installation of each distribution type is performed. Then through simulations based on TCPO software and real water consumption data in buildings, the financial analysis of each type of distribution is performed. It can be concluded that the collective distribution system is generally cheaper to install and use. However, the environmental impact generated by the use of PVC in this type of distribution is greater. Therefore, the engineer is subject to a trade-off between sustainable development and financial costs when choosing which distribution to deploy. However, for middle-class enterprises, the results are clearer and suggest that individual distribution is more efficient, both financially and environmentally.