Abstract
The building construction industry is the major source of carbon emission and accounts for up to 40% of the environmental burden. Overall, the building construction industry consumes about 40% of natural resources and energy worldwide. In the present study, the carbon footprint of different types of multi-storied buildings in India, constructed by the National building construction corporation (NBCC) India Ltd., is calculated from cradle-to-site as a case study using the Scheduled Embodied Energy Rates (SEER) database developed by IIT Roorkee. The base case results are compared by substituting with alternate materials. From the carbon footprint, it is observed that the majority of carbon is emitted by building materials alone due to their high embodied energy, and the rest is contributed by the energy consumed in transportation and construction activities. Among the building materials, cement alone accounts for about 65% and cement, bricks and steel together account for more than 90% of the total carbon emissions by all materials used. This paper concludes that a thorough evaluation of the material’s efficiency and performance should be made at the design stage before including it in the final bill of quantities. The potential use of alternative sustainable materials and low embodied energy materials is evaluated and discussed.
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The authors thank NBCC for funding the project and IIT Roorkee for providing necessary utilities and equipment.
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Suresh Vidyasagar, C.H., Rajasekar, E., Chani, P.S. (2022). On-Site Construction Phase Carbon Footprint of Different Multi-Storied Buildings in India. In: Singh, L.P., Bhardwaj, A., Iqbal, R., Khanzode, V. (eds) Productivity with Health, Safety, and Environment. HWWE 2019. Design Science and Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7361-0_36
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