Prospects of a Sustainable EOL - Carbon Footprint Assessment of a Tropical Housing Habitat

Abstract

End of Life (EOL) is a vital phase in environmental life cycle impact assessment. However, most of studies either do not consider this phase or make its assessment based on certain assumptions, thus limiting the actual contributions. A proper pre-assessment of such environmental impacts during planning can achieve an optimum sustainable design inception at an early stage. The current work evaluates the carbon footprint potential of the EOL phase of conventional housings in a tropical climate of Malaysia. Conventional units with varying areas, height and type of construction have been analyzed. The life cycle inventory was achieved by developing the virtual prototypes of selected units using Building information Modeling (BIM). Partial life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to obtain carbon emissions. The study highlighted a contribution of 2.5 to 3.0 tons-CO2 with average intensity of 1.00 kg-CO2 per unit area. The dismantling operation dominated the hauling operations by 50%. Concrete and bricks were the top two materials dominating the hauling activity. Statistical technique, regression, highlighted a significant relationship between dependent (carbon footprint) and independent (area) variables. Study, being one of the few addressing conventional low cost housing sector in tropical climate, is expected to act as mile stone and guideline baesed upon actual data of facilities for a realistic environmental conscious and optimum sustainable decision.