Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Excavation on Residential Construction Sites

Despite considerable research concerning the manifestation of greenhouse gases in the usage of buildings, little has been done concerning emissions arising from the construction process itself. This paper specifically examines emissions arising from cut and fill excavation on residential construction sites. Even though such excavation is often seen as being economical in terms of providing a flat base for concrete raft slab construction, the environmental consequences of this approach need to be considered more fully in terms of impact on the environment. This is particularly important when steeply sloping sites are involved and for different soil types. The paper undertakes a study that quantitatively assesses the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions caused by cut and fill excavation on 52 residential projects in Australia for a range of slope and soil types. The paper presents results from the study and concludes that greenhouse gas emissions increase as site slope increases; the building footprint area (as distinct from Gross Floor Area), exposes the need to reduce the area of the building to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; excavation of rock soils creates higher emissions than other soil types; and cut and fill excavation on steeply slope sites increase emissions. Potential alternative construction includes suspended floor construction systems which involve less excavation.

[1]  L. Gustavsson,et al.  Variability in energy and carbon dioxide balances of wood and concrete building materials , 2006 .

[2]  Walter Klöpffer,et al.  The Role of SETAC in the Development of LCA , 2006 .

[3]  Arpad Horvath,et al.  Decision Support Tool for Environmental Analysis of Commercial Building Structures , 2005 .

[4]  Xiaoling Zhang,et al.  Green property development practice in China: Costs and barriers , 2011 .

[5]  Lei Zhang,et al.  Greenhouse gas emissions in building construction: A case study of One Peking in Hong Kong , 2010 .

[6]  Yimin Zhu,et al.  An LCA-based environmental impact assessment model for construction processes , 2010 .

[7]  J. Burnett,et al.  Analysis of embodied energy use in the residential building of Hong Kong , 2001 .

[8]  Melissa M. Bilec,et al.  Life-Cycle Assessment Modeling of Construction Processes for Buildings , 2010 .

[9]  A. Dimoudi,et al.  Energy and environmental indicators related to construction of office buildings , 2008 .

[10]  Qiping Shen,et al.  Comparative study of greenhouse gas emissions between off-site prefabrication and conventional construction methods: Two case studies of residential projects , 2013 .

[11]  Gloria P. Gerilla,et al.  An environmental assessment of wood and steel reinforced concrete housing construction , 2007 .

[12]  John S. Monahan,et al.  An embodied carbon and energy analysis of modern methods of construction in housing: A case study us , 2011 .

[13]  Xu Zhang,et al.  Environmental performance optimization of window–wall ratio for different window type in hot summer and cold winter zone in China based on life cycle assessment , 2010 .

[14]  Simaan M. AbouRizk,et al.  Toward Environmentally Sustainable Construction Processes: The U.S. and Canada’s Perspective on Energy Consumption and GHG/CAP Emissions , 2010 .

[15]  Raymond J. Cole,et al.  Energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction of alternative structural systems , 1998 .

[16]  Jamie Goggins,et al.  The assessment of embodied energy in typical reinforced concrete building structures in Ireland , 2010 .