Carbon footprint of residential building construction in Christchurch

Abstract

Construction projects ranging from small residential to commercial buildings produce significant proportion of carbon emissions in New Zealand. Christchurch is growing with an increasing rate with a large number of residential building construction projects currently in progress or being planned. In this research, the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy analysis of some typical residential houses built recently in Christchurch will be investigated. A life cycle assessment (LCA) will be carried out, taking into account the supply of construction materials as well as the construction activities. The life cycle GHG emissions and embodied energy of the case study buildings will be calculated. The project is currently in the early stages and this paper presents briefly the preliminary works undertaken so far and the anticipated results. It is expected the project will provide results on the GHG emissions and embodied energy associated with the construction of typical residential buildings in Christchurch where the critical stages in the construction process of the buildings that cause the major GHG emissions are identified and discussed.