Integrate an embodied GHG emissions assessment model into building environmental assessment tools

Abstract

Building sector shares a considerable portion of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, as building facilities are energy- and emission-intensive to construct and operate. The buildings’ embodied GHG emissions make up a considerable portion of buildings’ life cycle emissions. Previous research indicates that up to 30 per cent of buildings’ lifecycle emissions can be minimized through the careful selection of low-carbon materials. Although building environmental assessment (BEA) tools have been widely used in identifying and mitigating the lifecycle environmental impacts of building facilities, the existing BEA tools including the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are proved to be unsatisfactory to fulfil the needs for auditing, benchmarking, and finally labeling the building materials’ embodied GHG emissions. This study began by examining the limitations of current BEA tools, in particular their means of evaluating the embodied GHG emissions of buildings. Then, an embodied GHG emissions assessment model was proposed to be integrated into an existing BEA scheme. The proposed BEA integrated embodied GHG emissions model comprised (i) product category, (ii) GHG auditing, and (iii) benchmarking. The proposed model will enable clients and design teams to minimize the carbon footprints of buildings and assist users and the general public in identifying real green building facilities.