Assessment of CO2 emissions reduction in high-rise concrete office buildings using different material use options

Abstract This study applied the Monte Carlo method to generate probabilistic distributions for describing the CO 2 footprint of the superstructure of a high-rise concrete office building. The distribution profile was constructed with the material use data collected from thirteen high-rise office concrete buildings in Hong Kong. Our results indicate that the superstructure of an office building (i.e. it does not embrace foundation or basement), on average, had a footprint of 215.1 kg CO 2 /m 2 . External walls and upper floor construction had the highest CO 2 footprint, followed by suspended ceilings and finishes. These three elements altogether accounted for an average of 84.2% of the CO 2 footprint associated with the superstructure. Furthermore, this study also evaluated the emissions reduction impacts of five different material use options over a 60-year lifespan. Among all the studied options, the most effective option is to maintain 15–30% of the existing structural and non-structural building elements as it can reduce the CO 2 footprint by 17.3%. Diverting construction wastes to recycling can reduce the CO 2 footprint by 5.9%. Reusing resources and importing regional materials can each only reduce the CO 2 footprint by 3.2% and 3.1% respectively. In contrast, the CO 2 footprint will be increased by 5% if off-site fabricated materials are used in facades, slabs and partition walls.

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