Abstract
Studies conducted by major national and international scientific bodies have indisputably concluded that the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) since the mid-20th century has led to irreversible changes in the climate. Data has shown that the contribution of the building sector accounts for 39% of these emissions. Reducing GHG emissions associated with the construction phase of buildings, or embodied carbon (EC), will prevent GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere earlier, reducing the negative impacts. However, to achieve any meaningful reduction, there is a need for consistency and accuracy in the calculations. The accuracy of these calculations is primarily tied to the accuracy of embodied carbon factors (ECF) used in the calculations, values determining the environmental impact of a product or procedure per unit weight. The emissions of any product can be calculated by performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). While the requirements for carrying out an LCA have been standardised in ISO14044, the lack of a definitive national ECF database in the UK means that EC calculations can vary drastically based on the chosen database. An LCA has been carried out on a standard Lidl supermarket design within the A1–A3 boundary. For the calculation, the ECFs were sourced from two different databases, using the GHG conversion factor data published in 2020 by the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change and data published in 2019 by the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE). The latter is currently accepted as the most consistent database for carbon factors in the UK. This study showed that using a more detailed database compared to using a more general database could result in a 35.2% reduction of embodied carbon, while using more detailed data from a single database can reduce it by a further 5.5%. It is necessary to establish the most accurate baseline for embodied carbon so that any carbon reduction attempts can be as effective as possible.
Highlights
The reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a vital task that needs to be taken on a global level to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change
According to a 2019 report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the building sector accounts for 39% of the global energy-based GHG emissions, which have increased by 6%
While this study was conducted within the A1–A3 boundary, some embodied carbon factors (ECF) such as the ECFs for aluminium sheets within the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database were defined by production location, either EU or international
Summary
The reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a vital task that needs to be taken on a global level to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. According to a 2019 report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the building sector accounts for 39% of the global energy-based GHG emissions, which have increased by 6%. The building sector has a high potential for emission reduction [2]. The focus on the operational phase in the past [3] has neglected the 6% of all global energy use and the 11% of energy-based GHG emissions that are attributed to the construction industry [1]. The focus on the operational phase has resulted from several factors. The main factor has been the assumption that the operational phase contributes a more significant percentage of a building’s lifetime emissions and energy use, up to 90% in a 50-year
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