Quantification of Building Carbon Emissions in China a Using Hybrid LCA Model

Abstract

During their life cycle, buildings not only consume a lot of resources and energy, but also produce a large amount of carbon emissions, which have a serious impact on the environment. In the context of global emissions reduction, the trend has been to low carbon buildings. As a major carbon emitting country, it is urgent to promote emission reduction in the construction industry and to establish a model for carbon emissions and calculation in buildings. To this end, this paper collates life cycle carbon emission calculation methods based on life cycle theory and establishes a mixed life cycle carbon emission calculation model for buildings to provide ideas for low carbon buildings in China. A case study of a hospital in Guangming City, Anhui Province is also conducted to verify the feasibility of the model. The results show that the total carbon emission of the hospital is 43283.66 tCO2eq, with the production phase, construction phase, use and maintenance phase and end-of-life phase accounting for 9.13%, 0.35%, 90.06% and 0.46% of the total carbon emission respectively. An analysis of the factors influencing carbon emissions at each stage is presented, and recommendations are given for corresponding emission reduction measures. The carbon emission calculation model based on the hybrid LCA proposed in this study enables a more comprehensive consideration of carbon emissions in the life cycle of a building, and has implications for the study of building carbon emission calculation.