Life Cycle Assessment of Green Buildings: A Case Study in China

Due to the negative impact on the environment, particularly in terms of energy consumption and environmental load, the construction industry is the focus of attention for many researchers. By using life cycle assessment method, this study found the life cycle energy performance of a green office building in China in order to examine the achievements of green building technology and to identify the key points of green building construction and operation. After analyzing five scenarios, the result shows that the embodied energy of the case study office building ranged from 2.52 to 9.76 GJ/m 2 , and the operation energy was 0.21 GJ/m 2 yr. The findings suggest that it is necessary to use materials with high embodied energy intensity or frequent usage rate to conserve energy during the construction phase of a building, and to adopt energy saving equipment and new energy sources during occupation.

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