According to the UN Global Alliance of Buildings and Construction (UN GlobalABC), carbon emissions from buildings have returned to record levels after a temporary decrease in 2020 caused by the pandemic. The year 2021 witnessed a resurgence in construction activities, reverting to the levels seen prior to the pandemic in most major economies.
With the reopening of workplaces, building usage has been intensified, despite hybrid work models continuing to be popular, thus signifying that CO2 emissions originating from the building operation reaching record highs. The United Nations Environment Program states that 39 percent of global annual carbon emissions come from the built environment, which includes both operational carbons, the ongoing carbon emissions from its daily use, and embodied carbon.
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Clear and concise accounting is crucial for achieving net-zero targets, starting with precise measurement of all carbon sources, which can then be reduced, reused, and recycled as much as possible. Apart from buildings’ operational and embodied carbon, real estate developers should also consider their own inherent carbon emissions.
Unprecedented growth is being observed in the construction industry across the Middle East region, particularly in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. This is largely due to extensive pipelines of projects, long-term development plans, and investment strategies, which are anticipated to lead to a substantial expansion in the sector. As per a report by Global Data, the construction industry in the UAE is projected to grow by 3.3 percent in 2023, attributed to the elevated oil prices and augmented investments in the energy sector.
This indicates that the building and construction sector must take prompt action and a strategic roadmap to attain decarbonization by 2050. To achieve this, the UAE Cabinet has endorsed a national scheme to implement new sustainability standards for housing, roads, and buildings to conserve resources and reduce the country’s carbon footprint. As part of the initiative, the government intends to lower the carbon footprint by 5 percent, decrease energy consumption in buildings and housing by 25 percent, and reduce water usage by 16 percent.
Accurate measurement and reporting of emissions is the initial step toward curbing them. This necessitates performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a building, which evaluates the carbon emissions of the building throughout its entire lifespan. The LCA encompasses emissions originating from the extraction of raw materials, their transportation, manufacturing, construction, usage, and disposal. According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) 2022 Sustainability Report, a global survey found that approximately 72 percent of respondents from the construction sector worldwide do not measure operational carbon emissions throughout project lifecycles.
Furthermore, nearly half of the respondents claimed that they do not measure embodied carbon on their projects. Currently, most buildings are not evaluated for their entire lifecycle carbon footprint. Instead, the construction sector has primarily concentrated on quantifying and minimizing carbon emissions linked to operational energy use. However, it is essential to assess the embodied carbon related to building construction, renovation, and decommissioning as part of the building’s comprehensive lifecycle carbon footprint.
Most structures exhibit carbon, often measured as CO2e, which contains all the carbon emissions generated during the construction process. This includes the extraction of building materials, their transportation, and on-site activity. It is essential to reduce the materials demand in construction projects to minimize their carbon footprint, and therefore, embodied carbon assessments should consider various stages of construction. Designing for resource efficiency is one way to achieve this goal. Building information modeling (BIM) and computer-assisted design (CAD) software are examples of technologies that could be utilized to improve efficiency by employing computer processing.
To diminish the carbon footprint of their construction ventures, developers can opt for superior and eco-friendly provisions. Using recycled materials is another effective means of counterbalancing the carbon emissions produced during building projects. Recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is a relevant example of this practice, as it is made from materials such as metals, tiles, plastics, wood, glass, and even paper that have been discarded.
Lastly, Universities and higher education institutions can play a vital role in assisting the industry in achieving its net-zero goals by providing high-impact research findings, increasing awareness, identifying best practices, and developing innovative solutions. Organizations such as the Centre of Excellence in Smart Construction (CESC), with their research and industry dialogues, can educate policymakers about the significance of sustainable construction and the policies required to encourage it.
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