Abstract
Improving the environmental life cycle performance of buildings by focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along the building life cycle is considered a crucial step in achieving global climate targets. This paper provides a systematic review and analysis of 75 residential case studies in humid subtropical and tropical climates. The study investigates GHG emissions across the building life cycle, i.e., it analyses both embodied and operational GHG emissions. Furthermore, the influence of various parameters, such as building location, typology, construction materials and energy performance, as well as methodological aspects are investigated. Through comparative analysis, the study identifies promising design strategies for reducing life cycle-related GHG emissions of buildings operating in subtropical and tropical climate zones. The results show that life cycle GHG emissions in the analysed studies are mostly dominated by operational emissions and are the highest for energy-intensive multi-family buildings. Buildings following low or net-zero energy performance targets show potential reductions of 50–80% for total life cycle GHG emissions, compared to buildings with conventional energy performance. Implementation of on-site photovoltaic (PV) systems provides the highest reduction potential for both operational and total life cycle GHG emissions, with potential reductions of 92% to 100% and 48% to 66%, respectively. Strategies related to increased use of timber and other bio-based materials present the highest potential for reduction of embodied GHG emissions, with reductions of 9% to 73%.
Highlights
IntroductionThe building and construction sector plays a key role in global climate change, contributing about 39% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [3,4]
Within the collection of 71 case studies, most of the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission assessments were performed for buildings located in humid subtropical climates
The results of this study demonstrate that residential buildings with net-zero or low-energy performances have the potential to reduce the total life cycle GHG emissions by 50–80% compared to the most common conventional energy performance
Summary
The building and construction sector plays a key role in global climate change, contributing about 39% of GHG emissions [3,4]. These emissions could potentially increase threefold by 2060 due to the increased need for adequate housing, electricity and improved facilities for billions of people in developing economies of the Global South [5]. To effectively reduce global energy use and GHG emissions by buildings and construction, a life cycle perspective is required when analysing and optimising buildings [10]. Environmental targets such as “carbon budgets” are increasingly being formulated for building construction and operation [11]
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