IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i19p12947-d938282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon Emissions of Construction Processes on Urban Construction Sites

Author

Listed:
  • Maximilian Weigert

    (Institute of Construction Process and Construction Economics, TU Wien, 1040 Vienna, Austria)

  • Oleksandr Melnyk

    (Institute of Construction Process and Construction Economics, TU Wien, 1040 Vienna, Austria)

  • Leopold Winkler

    (Institute of Construction Process and Construction Economics, TU Wien, 1040 Vienna, Austria)

  • Jacqueline Raab

    (Institute of Construction Process and Construction Economics, TU Wien, 1040 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

For Europe to achieve “climate neutrality” by 2050, emissions from all economic sectors must be reduced to the absolute minimum. In addition to changes in raw material extraction and building material production, the construction industry must embrace emission-free construction sites. The present paper suggests a method to calculate carbon emissions on construction sites by defining all fuel-consuming processes while relying on established European standards. A set of system boundaries is defined to single out emissions that occur in the construction industry sphere. These definitions are essential to calculate savings through the entire construction process. This method is subsequently used to assess the carbon balance of four exemplary construction sites in Austria, which cover the total span of the construction life cycle. Results show that the largest share of emissions is attributed to transport during the construction of new buildings, followed by emissions from demolition and building processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Maximilian Weigert & Oleksandr Melnyk & Leopold Winkler & Jacqueline Raab, 2022. "Carbon Emissions of Construction Processes on Urban Construction Sites," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12947-:d:938282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12947/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12947/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nässén, Jonas & Holmberg, John & Wadeskog, Anders & Nyman, Madeleine, 2007. "Direct and indirect energy use and carbon emissions in the production phase of buildings: An input–output analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1593-1602.
    2. Jonggeon Lee & Sungho Tae & Rakhyun Kim, 2018. "A Study on the Analysis of CO 2 Emissions of Apartment Housing in the Construction Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Röck, Martin & Saade, Marcella Ruschi Mendes & Balouktsi, Maria & Rasmussen, Freja Nygaard & Birgisdottir, Harpa & Frischknecht, Rolf & Habert, Guillaume & Lützkendorf, Thomas & Passer, Alexander, 2020. "Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    4. Kovacic, Iva & Zoller, Veronika, 2015. "Building life cycle optimization tools for early design phases," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(P3), pages 409-419.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ibrahim Mosly, 2025. "Carbon Footprint of Global Construction Industries: A Cross-Country Analysis of Emissions, Drivers, and the Construction Carbon Sustainability Index (1990–2023)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-24, October.
    2. Davide Simeone & Marianna Rotilio & Federica Cucchiella, 2023. "Construction Work and Utilities in Historic Centers: Strategies for a Transition towards Fuel-Free Construction Sites," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-20, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patricia Schneider-Marin & Hannes Harter & Konstantin Tkachuk & Werner Lang, 2020. "Uncertainty Analysis of Embedded Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Using BIM in Early Design Stages," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Wesam Salah Alaloul & Muhammad Altaf & Muhammad Ali Musarat & Muhammad Faisal Javed & Amir Mosavi, 2021. "Systematic Review of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost Analysis for Pavement and a Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-38, April.
    3. Lin, Boqiang & Du, Zhili, 2017. "Promoting energy conservation in China's metallurgy industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 285-294.
    4. Dixit, Manish K. & Culp, Charles H. & Fernández-Solís, Jose L., 2013. "System boundary for embodied energy in buildings: A conceptual model for definition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 153-164.
    5. Qiang Du & Xinran Lu & Yi Li & Min Wu & Libiao Bai & Ming Yu, 2018. "Carbon Emissions in China’s Construction Industry: Calculations, Factors and Regions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Jacek Michalak & Bartosz Michałowski, 2022. "Understanding Sustainability of Construction Products: Answers from Investors, Contractors, and Sellers of Building Materials," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, March.
    7. Maria Cristina Collivignarelli & Giacomo Cillari & Paola Ricciardi & Marco Carnevale Miino & Vincenzo Torretta & Elena Cristina Rada & Alessandro Abbà, 2020. "The Production of Sustainable Concrete with the Use of Alternative Aggregates: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-34, September.
    8. Marin Pellan & Denise Almeida & Mathilde Louërat & Guillaume Habert, 2024. "Integrating Consumption-Based Metrics into Sectoral Carbon Budgets to Enhance Sustainability Monitoring of Building Activities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-25, August.
    9. Enrico Sicignano & Giacomo Di Ruocco & Roberta Melella, 2019. "Mitigation Strategies for Reduction of Embodied Energy and Carbon, in the Construction Systems of Contemporary Quality Architecture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Hyojin Lim & Sungho Tae & Seungjun Roh, 2018. "Analysis of the Primary Building Materials in Support of G-SEED Life Cycle Assessment in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, August.
    11. Fahlstedt, Oskar & Temeljotov-Salaj, Alenka & Lohne, Jardar & Bohne, Rolf André, 2022. "Holistic assessment of carbon abatement strategies in building refurbishment literature — A scoping review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    12. Luca Evangelisti & Edoardo De Cristo & Salvatore Monteleone & Claudia Guattari & Paola Gori & Ivan Pini & Tullio de Rubeis & Dario Ambrosini, 2025. "A New Customized Measurement System for a Non-Contact, Enhanced Thermometric Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-17, March.
    13. Rai, Deepak & Sodagar, Behzad & Fieldson, Rosi & Hu, Xiao, 2011. "Assessment of CO2 emissions reduction in a distribution warehouse," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 2271-2277.
    14. Haonan Zhang, 2023. "Leveraging policy instruments and financial incentives to reduce embodied carbon in energy retrofits," Papers 2304.03403, arXiv.org.
    15. Kangji Li & Lei Pan & Wenping Xue & Hui Jiang & Hanping Mao, 2017. "Multi-Objective Optimization for Energy Performance Improvement of Residential Buildings: A Comparative Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-23, February.
    16. Lachlan Curmi & Kumudu Kaushalya Weththasinghe & Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman Tariq, 2022. "Global Policy Review on Embodied Flows: Recommendations for Australian Construction Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, November.
    17. Geeth Jayathilaka & Niraj Thurairajah & Akila Rathnasinghe, 2023. "Digital Data Management Practices for Effective Embodied Carbon Estimation: A Systematic Evaluation of Barriers for Adoption in the Building Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, December.
    18. Claudio Zandonella Callegher & Gianluca Grazieschi & Eric Wilczynski & Ulrich Filippi Oberegger & Simon Pezzutto, 2023. "Assessment of Building Materials in the European Residential Building Stock: An Analysis at EU27 Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.
    19. Rosaria E.C. Amaral & Joel Brito & Matt Buckman & Elicia Drake & Esther Ilatova & Paige Rice & Carlos Sabbagh & Sergei Voronkin & Yewande S. Abraham, 2020. "Waste Management and Operational Energy for Sustainable Buildings: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-21, July.
    20. Fu, Z.H. & Xie, Y.L. & Li, W. & Lu, W.T. & Guo, H.C., 2017. "An inexact multi-objective programming model for an economy-energy-environment system under uncertainty: A case study of Urumqi, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 165-178.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12947-:d:938282. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.