Calculating the Embodied and Operational Carbon Footprint in Concrete Buildings: A Case Study Simulation to Mitigate Carbon Footprint

The Earth is absorbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions driven by the combination of population growth and human activities. Construction and related activities are the world’s largest energy-consuming and polluting human activities and are wreaking havoc on the environment. Construction material usage or production produces a significant amount of carbon and consumes a large volume of water. The evaluation and calculation of environmental impacts in the construction industry are always challenging for every building with various functions, whether during or after the construction phase, during the operation phase, or at the time of demolition. This study intends to determine the carbon footprint of residential buildings in Mazandaran Province, Iran, from construction to operation of concrete structures. Therefore, a building was selected as a case study of concrete structures in Babolsar, Iran. Material consumption in the building was estimated using quantity take-off and estimation methods. The carbon footprint of different materials’ weight per unit was extracted from authentic references, and the total footprint was calculated. By dividing this value by the floor area of the building, carbon produced per surface area unit was calculated. According to the calculations, the carbon footprint for structure framing materials in a concrete building was 464 kg-CO2eq/m2 and 18.5 kg-CO2eq/m2/year. The carbon footprint for building operations was determined using DesignBuilder software to calculate the annual energy-related kg-CO2eq/m2 production. Results show that 69 kg-CO2eq/m2/year of carbon was produced during one year through energy consumption in the case study.