IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i7p2935-d1620949.html

Accounting for Whole-Life Carbon, the Time Value of Carbon, and Grid Decarbonization in Cost–Benefit Analyses of Residential Retrofits

Author

Listed:
  • Allison Hyatt

    (Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • Holly W. Samuelson

    (Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

Abstract

This study investigates the carbon- and cost-effectiveness of decarbonization strategies in retrofits of prototypical single-family homes built before 1980 in Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, USA. When investigating the carbon performance of home retrofits, embodied carbon, location-specific electricity grid emission rates, variation in future grid emission rates depending on policy changes, and the time value of carbon (TVC) are often omitted. If those subjects are addressed, they are rarely analyzed all together. Using energy simulation and Life Cycle Assessment, this research quantified the whole-life carbon reduction and Life Cycle Cost, in kgCO 2 e/US$, associated with each retrofit, ranked the interventions accordingly, and calculated how the rankings would change if electricity grid emission rates differed or the TVC were considered. Assuming current grid emission rates, envelope retrofits tended to rank better than renewable energy and electrification upgrades in terms of carbon reduction per dollar spent. However, if grid emission rates were lower, electrification upgrades improved in rank, while renewable energy upgrades declined. Including the TVC generally caused retrofits with high initial carbon to drop in rank. The results illustrate that considering whole-life carbon, regionally specific grid emissions, future grid emission scenarios, and the TVC can have important implications on decarbonization recommendations, and the findings suggest that analyses, especially those supporting building policy or incentive programs, should include such considerations.

Suggested Citation

  • Allison Hyatt & Holly W. Samuelson, 2025. "Accounting for Whole-Life Carbon, the Time Value of Carbon, and Grid Decarbonization in Cost–Benefit Analyses of Residential Retrofits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-30, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:7:p:2935-:d:1620949
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/7/2935/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/7/2935/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ali, Usman & Shamsi, Mohammad Haris & Bohacek, Mark & Hoare, Cathal & Purcell, Karl & Mangina, Eleni & O’Donnell, James, 2020. "A data-driven approach to optimize urban scale energy retrofit decisions for residential buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    2. 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).
    3. Wu, Raphael & Mavromatidis, Georgios & Orehounig, Kristina & Carmeliet, Jan, 2017. "Multiobjective optimisation of energy systems and building envelope retrofit in a residential community," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 634-649.
    4. Kevin Rennert & Brian C. Prest & William A. Pizer & Richard G. Newell & David Anthoff & Cora Kingdon & Lisa Rennels & Roger Cooke & Adrian E. Raftery & Hana Sevcikova & Frank Errickson, 2021. "The Social Cost of Carbon: Advances in Long-Term Probabilistic Projections of Population, GDP, Emissions, and Discount Rates," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 52(2 (Fall)), pages 223-305.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Martin, Rit & Arthur, Thomas & Jonathan, Villot & Mathieu, Thorel & Enora, Garreau & Robin, Girard, 2024. "SHAPE: A temporal optimization model for residential buildings retrofit to discuss policy objectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    2. Waibel, Christoph & Evins, Ralph & Carmeliet, Jan, 2019. "Co-simulation and optimization of building geometry and multi-energy systems: Interdependencies in energy supply, energy demand and solar potentials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1661-1682.
    3. Assareh, Ehsanolah & Hoseinzadeh, Siamak & Agarwal, Saurabh & keykhah, Mohammad & Agarwal, Neha & Heydari, Azim & Astiaso Garcia, Davide, 2025. "Assessment of a wind energy installation for powering a residential building in Rome, Italy: Incorporating wind turbines, compressed air energy storage, and a compression chiller based on a machine learning model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Hermann, Julian & Kachirayil, Febin & Lohrmann, Alena & Scheller, Fabian & Roskosch, Dennis & McKenna, Russell, 2025. "A critical reflection on modelling approaches for heat pumps and building envelope retrofits in local energy system optimisations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 400(C).
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Jeeyoung Lim & Joseph J. Kim & Sunkuk Kim, 2021. "A Holistic Review of Building Energy Efficiency and Reduction Based on Big Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    9. Jeong, Kwangbok & Hong, Taehoon & Kim, Jimin & Cho, Kyuman, 2019. "Development of a multi-objective optimization model for determining the optimal CO2 emissions reduction strategies for a multi-family housing complex," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 118-131.
    10. Thrampoulidis, Emmanouil & Mavromatidis, Georgios & Lucchi, Aurelien & Orehounig, Kristina, 2021. "A machine learning-based surrogate model to approximate optimal building retrofit solutions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    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. Rabani, Mehrdad & Bayera Madessa, Habtamu & Mohseni, Omid & Nord, Natasa, 2020. "Minimizing delivered energy and life cycle cost using Graphical script: An office building retrofitting case," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    14. Mohamed Hamdy & Gerardo Maria Mauro, 2017. "Multi-Objective Optimization of Building Energy Design to Reconcile Collective and Private Perspectives: CO 2 -eq vs. Discounted Payback Time," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-26, July.
    15. Ahmed, Wahhaj & Asif, Muhammad, 2021. "A critical review of energy retrofitting trends in residential buildings with particular focus on the GCC countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    16. Haonan Zhang, 2023. "Leveraging policy instruments and financial incentives to reduce embodied carbon in energy retrofits," Papers 2304.03403, arXiv.org.
    17. 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.
    18. Mohajeri, Nahid & Perera, A.T.D. & Coccolo, Silvia & Mosca, Lucas & Le Guen, Morgane & Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, 2019. "Integrating urban form and distributed energy systems: Assessment of sustainable development scenarios for a Swiss village to 2050," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 810-826.
    19. Prada, A. & Gasparella, A. & Baggio, P., 2018. "On the performance of meta-models in building design optimization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 814-826.
    20. 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.

    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:17:y:2025:i:7:p:2935-:d:1620949. 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.