Sattary, S and Thorpe, D (2011) Reducing embodied energy in Australian building construction. In: Egbu, C and Lou, E C W (eds.) Proceedings of 27th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2011, Bristol, UK.
Abstract
Climate change and global warming are well recognised as major issues in sustainable development, with the building sector being responsible for considerable global greenhouse gas emissions. Until fairly recently, it was generally considered that the embodied energy content of a building was small relative to the operating energy over the building s lifetime. However, recent research in Australia and elsewhere has shown that the embodied energy of construction processes for houses is equivalent to 10-15 years of operating energy. Therefore, reducing embodied energy in the construction process has now come into focus as a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. This paper makes the case for strongly considering the embodied energy of building materials in the building life cycle, and discusses methods that take into account selection and use of building materials to decrease the embodied energy used in construction processes. The methods and techniques are illustrated by a green star environmentally rated project in Australia, which achieves efficient embodied energy usage.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | energy; environmental impact; green buildings; material management; sustainability |
| Index terms: | embodied energy, building life cycle, greenhouse gas emission, Australia, green building, sustainable development, construction process, environmental impact, carbon dioxide emission, building material, global warming, building construction, climate change |
| Subjects: | design practice, Geography, building construction, climate science, environmental impact, environmental health, asset management, energy systems, building materials, health safety and environment |
| Topics: | Site Management, Sustainability, Geographical Context, Business Strategy, Design Practice, Health and Safety, Construction Technology |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here