Comparison of Embodied Carbon on Residential Building Components Between House and Apartment Using BIM

Abstract

Climate change is currently an urgent issue globally. It is known that building sector generates a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Many scientists believe that embodied carbon from components in buildings influenced the embodied carbon of the whole building sector. This research study aims to use the life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool for evaluating embodied carbon in building components, and BIM to generate the building material data. The building materials of two different building types including house and apartments are compared. The LCA of buildings is a complex task because of the complexity during the life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment phase for the quantity take-off materials stage. Therefore, an integration of LCA and BIM can help reduce the time consuming from evaluating embodied carbon during design. Results indicate that the conventional (CON) system is higher embodied carbon value than the precast (PCS) system. Additionally, the component of CON system generated embodied carbon the most is column and beam structure while, for the PCS system, the interior and exterior wall structure exhibits the highest value. The results offer information on embodied carbon value for designers concerning with design and building construction in the early stage.