Abstract
To explore the differences in carbon emissions over the whole life-cycle of different building structures, the published calculated carbon emissions from residential buildings in China and abroad were normalized. Embodied carbon emission flows, operations stage carbon emission flows, demolition and reclamation stage carbon emission flows and total life-cycle carbon emission flows from concrete, steel, and wood structures were obtained. This study is based on the theory of the social cost of carbon, with an adequately demonstrated social cost of carbon and social discount rate. Taking into consideration both static and dynamic situations and using a social discount rate of 3.5%, the total life-cycle carbon emission flows, absolute carbon emission and building carbon costs were calculated and assessed. The results indicated that concrete structures had the highest embodied carbon emission flows and negative carbon emission flows in the waste and reclamation stage. Wood structures that started the life-cycle with stored carbon had the lowest carbon emission flows in the operations stage and relatively high negative carbon emission flows in the reclamation stage. Wood structures present the smallest carbon footprints for residential buildings.
Highlights
Buildings account for 37% of total global energy consumption and carbon emissions, while transportation accounts for 28%, industry accounts for 27%, and the remainder accounts for 8%
Carbon emissions are shown as positive values, while carbon storage and negative carbon emissions are shown as negative values
This normalization allowed for exploration of the intrinsic characteristics of carbon emission flows over the whole life-cycle of concrete, steel, and wood structures
Summary
Buildings account for 37% of total global energy consumption and carbon emissions, while transportation accounts for 28%, industry accounts for 27%, and the remainder accounts for 8%. Buildings lead the world in energy consumption and carbon emissions [1]. Various residential structures have different carbon emission characteristics. Concrete, steel, and wood housing units emit different amounts of carbon over their life-cycles. Research using cash flow theory was conducted on the distribution characteristics of carbon emission flows over the whole life-cycle of different residential structures. The differences were compared and analyzed, and the terminal carbon emission flow values were evaluated. This is important in the selection of an optimal low-carbon-emission building structure
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