ABSTRACT

With respect to moving towards development without threat to our future generations, the overwhelming  unsustainable  consumption  of  natural  resources  is  the  dominant  energy  and  environmental  concerns discussed in both international and national conferences. In particular, to find potential solutions to minimize environmental impacts, the building sector should priorly be considered since it is responsible for almost forty percent of both global energy and materials consumption and contributes around one-third of the global greenhouse gases emission. This research, therefore, aimed at evaluating the level of embodied carbon emissions derived from building construction materials, using four buildings located in an educational institute as  a  case  study  to  represent  the  environmental  performance  of  construction  materials  based  on  reinforce  concrete structure in a tropical climate. The results revealed that on weighted average, the mass intensity and embodied  carbon  intensity  of  construction  materials  were  1,627  kg/m2  and  322  kgCO2/m2.  In  addition,  the  taller the building height the more likely it was to help improve such intensities. Almost 90% and 69% of the mass intensity and embodied carbon intensity derived from structural component materials whereas 24%  of  the embodied carbon emissions attributed to decorating component materials. The results also indicated that improvement in building with reinforce concrete structure could focus only on six materials namely concrete, steel, aluminium, cement, paint, and ceramic tile since these materials contributed 94% of embodied carbon emission.  The  findings  will  be  useful  for  planning  proactive  strategies  in  mitigating  embodied  carbon  in  building to cope with the challenges of global warming in the future.

The article can be accessed in https://geomatejournal.com/geomate/article/view/561