Carbon Emission of Construction Materials and Reduction Strategy: Take Prefabricated Construction in China as an example

Abstract

The rapid development of urbanization has made the building industry gradually become a major industry of carbon emissions. Now that the goal of carbon neutrality is increasingly clear, the construction industry will face a very serious challenge of energy conservation and emission reduction. Especially in developing countries, such as China, to achieve carbon neutrality, the government pay more attention to emission reduction and environmental protection in the construction materials industry. This paper first analyzes the carbon emissions of three common building materials: cement, steel, and asphalt. The production of one ton of cement will produce about 659 kg of CO2; the production of 1 ton of crude steel will produce more than 2,000 kg CO2, and the construction of a 20 km long road will produce more than 50 million kg of CO2. To achieve carbon emission reduction in the construction process and alleviate the pressure on the environment, prefabricated buildings are an important carbon reduction strategy. Compared to on-site construction, prefabricated constructions use less resources and release less carbon dioxide. However, prefabricated construction technology is not the mainstream of the construction domain yet in China. The paper analyzes the factors of the growth of prefabricated construction from three aspects: society and government, market, and technology.