Session

With increasing demands for ‘green’ buildings, it is critical to develop rigorous methods to quantify how ‘green’ a building is. Such methods derive environmental impact measures, the most common of which is greenhouse gas emissions.

Building life cycle emissions consist of embodied and operational emissions. Present studies of building emissions are typically limited to embodied emissions, and studies of building embodied emissions are typically limited to the product and construction stages. However, the majority of building life cycle emissions derive from the later use and end-of-life stages, which include emissions from repair, replacement, and operational energy usage.

In this manuscript, hazard vulnerability and carbon uptake are incorporated into building embodied emissions. Then, embodied emissions are combined with operational emissions to capture the full life cycle of emissions associated with construction material choice. The case study explores outcomes for concrete, masonry, and wood homes in Miami-Dade, FL. Expanding the case study to the entire state, outcomes are mapped for exterior wall core material choice.

Model results show that a durable, hazard-resilient material like concrete may lead to higher emissions in the initial construction stage, while also contributing to lower life cycle emissions, thanks to savings in the repair and replacement stages. The case study highlights concrete as the favorable material option in coastal and more southern communities, where hurricane wind exposure is relatively higher, and wood as the favorable material option in inland and more northern communities, where hurricane wind exposure is relatively lower.