Whole Life Carbon Assessment of a Typical UK Residential Building Using Different Embodied Carbon Data Sources

Keyhani, Maryam, Abbaspour, Atefeh, Bahadori-Jahromi, Ali ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0405-7146, Mylona, Anastasia, Janbey, Alan, Godfrey, Paulina and Zhang, Hexin (2023) Whole Life Carbon Assessment of a Typical UK Residential Building Using Different Embodied Carbon Data Sources. MDPI Sustainability.

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Abstract

The climate crisis in many sectors is driving rapid and substantial changes. Considering
the fact that the building sector accounts for 39% of energy related carbon emissions, it is important
to take swift actions to reduce these emissions. This study will identify the accuracy and availability
of the embodied carbon databases. In this regard, the effect of using different embodied carbon
databases on the total emissions during product and end-of-life stages will be compared. The results
showed that using the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy database (BEIS)
overestimates the embodied carbon emissions. Additionally, using the Environmental product
declarations database (EPDs), compared to the Inventory of Carbon and Energy database (ICE),
can reduce embodied carbon for some materials up to 100%. The end-of-life calculation showed a
huge difference between the two databases. In addition, Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLC) has
been carried out. The findings revealed that 67% of emissions come from operational carbon and
embodied carbon is responsible for 33% of emissions. Using LED lights and installing PV panels
can reduce the total CO2 emissions by 24.82 tonCO2. In addition, using recycled metal, less carbon
intensive concrete, and recyclable aluminium can reduce the total CO2 emissions by 18.57, 2.07, and
2.3 tonCO2e, respectively.

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: Ali Bahadori-Jahromi
Date Deposited: 14 Mar 2023 09:54
Last Modified: 14 Mar 2023 09:54
URI: https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/9851

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