Abstract
The design and study of low carbon buildings is a major concern in a modern economy due to high carbon emissions produced by buildings and its effects on climate change. Studies have investigated (CFP) Carbon Footprint of buildings, but there remains a need for a strong analysis that measure and quantify the overall degree of GHG emissions reductions and its relationship with the effect on climate change mitigation. This study evaluates the potential of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector by evaluating the (CFP) of four hotpots approaches defined in line with commonly carbon reduction strategies, also known as mitigation strategies. CFP framework is applied to compare the (CC) climate change impact of mitigation strategies. A multi-story timber residential construction in Quebec City (Canada) was chosen as a baseline scenario. This building has been designed with the idea of being a reference of sustainable development application in the building sector. In this scenario, the production of materials and construction (assembly, waste management and transportation) were evaluated. A CFP that covers eight actions divided in four low carbon strategies, including: low carbon materials, material minimization, reuse and recycle materials and adoption of local sources and use of biofuels were evaluated. The results of this study shows that the used of prefabricated technique in buildings is an alternative to reduce the CFP of buildings in the context of Quebec. The CC decreases per m2 floor area in baseline scenario is up to 25% than current buildings. If the benefits of low carbon strategies are included, the timber structures can generate 38% lower CC than the original baseline scenario. The investigation recommends that CO2eq emissions reduction in the design and implementation of residential constructions as climate change mitigation is perfectly feasible by following different working strategies. It is concluded that if the four strategies were implemented in current buildings they would have environmental benefits by reducing its CFP. The reuse wood wastes into production of particleboard has the greatest environmental benefit due to temporary carbon storage.
Highlights
Concern about climate change and global warming have become a central issue in building policy decision-making
The results presented in this work provide strong evidence to climate change mitigation due to building technology can positively be implemented as an approach to universal scope of climate policy, that connects long-term aspirations for sustainable development at the national level with demanding standards for sustainable buildings at the project level
A comprehensive evaluation of carbon reduction strategies to estimate and minimize the carbon footprint (CFP) emissions of buildings was presented in this work
Summary
Concern about climate change and global warming have become a central issue in building policy decision-making. In 2010, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that buildings accounted for 32% of total global energy use; and 19% of total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions [1]. They represent for approximately one third of black carbon emissions (REF) and one eight to one third of F-gas emissions. The carbon footprint (CFP) has become a hot spot in environmental science and related academic fields in recent years [5] In this sense, carbon footprint technique provides better understanding to represents the total set of GHG emissions caused directly or indirectly by an activity or resulting from the different life cycle stages of a product. Research on carbon footprints is of special significance in dealing with climate change, especially in regions with high constructions rates, and the availability of affordable low-carbon materials that can be part of high performance buildings [6]
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