Assessing the effect of structural parameters and building site in achieving low carbon building materialization using a life-cycle assessment approach

Abstract

The building industry has traditionally been driven by cost and time metrics while meeting quality and safety requirements. However, environmental concerns such as the carbon effect of the final product receive less attention. Due to increasing emissions awareness within the society, there have been calls from the public for greater environmental and social accountability. While many client organizations seek to add environmental measures to their tender selection criteria, efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the building construction are not well understood. This paper proposes that by selecting appropriate structural parameters and building sites, the construction of buildings will be in accordance with a low carbon footprint intensity (CFI). This is demonstrated by the analysis of various factories producing structural materials, along with a wide range of residential buildings. It was found that through the replacement of steel structures with concrete structures, a 24.46% decrease (69.97 kg/m2) in the CFI of structures will be achieved. It was also found that replacing an eight-story steel structure with two different four-story structures will result in a 35.94% (127.82 kg/m2) reduction in carbon intensity. In addition, a 14.44% (47.64 kg/m2) reduction in the CFI of a steel structure located in a site with stiff soil was observed by relocating it to a very dense soil site. This figure for a concrete structure was 13.94% (34.87 kg/m2). It is hoped that project managers and client organizations find the results of this research useful when deciding on structural parameters with lower carbon emissions. In this way, the paper contributes to the current performance of sustainable buildings.