Carbon emission analysis of a residential building in China through life cycle assessment

Abstract

In this paper, a quantitative life cycle model for carbon emission accounting was developed based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) theory. A residential building in Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city (Tianjin, China) was selected as a sample, which had been constructed according to the concept of green environmental protection and sustainable development. In the scenario of this research, material production, construction, use and maintenance, and demolition phases were assessed by building carbon emission models. Results show that use and maintenance phase and material production phase are the most significant contributors to the life cycle carbon emissions of a building. We also analyzed some factor influences in LCA, including the thickness of the insulating layer and the length of building service life. The analysis suggest that thicker insulating layer does not necessarily produce less carbon emissions in the light of LCA, and if service life of a building increases, its carbon emissions during the whole life cycle will rise as well but its unit carbon emission will decrease inversely. Some advices on controlling carbon emissions from buildings are also provided.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

life cycle assessment / carbon emission / factor influence analysis

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Acknowledgements

The financial support of Tianjin University Independent Innovation Project (2010XJ-0117) and National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period (2011BAJ06A03) is gratefully acknowledged.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg