Carbon Emission Modeling for Green Building: A Comprehensive Study of Methodologies

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claimed that greenhouse gases generate impact large enough to change global climate. Some industries are beginning to reduce carbon emissions from their designs and manufacturing processes in order to comply with IPCC recommendations around the world. According to statistics, the construction industry generates the greatest environmental impacts among all the other industries. Green building designs and standards are developed to improve building operation energy and embodied energy efficiencies, and minimize energy and wastes. The most common approach for green building certifications is to rate the compliance of each green building standard through a point rating system. No green building system has yet correlated its rating to the level of “greenness” of buildings. The level of certification does not reflect corresponding reduction in environmental impact and carbon emission. This paper establishes the framework to correlate green building standards with equivalent carbon emissions by, first, reviews the criteria of direct and indirect carbon emission measurement, second, identifies the focal point of carbon emission modeling, and finally, identifies the variables for carbon emission modeling of buildings.