LIFE CYCLE CARBON ASSESSMENT OF LMCP COLLEGE BUILDING AND STRATEGIES TO MAKE IT NET ZERO CARBON
Buildings are responsible for approximately 39% of global carbon emissions and have large material footprint. This has led to a focus on quantifying the energy, carbon, and material footprints of buildings and construction projects using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and minimizing these by implementing sustainable design strategies and operational improvements. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is defined as the systematic analysis of the potential environmental impacts of products or services during their entire life cycle. The life cycle of a building (as per standard EN 15804 ) consists of product stage (A1-A3), building construction (A4-A5), building use stage (B1-B6) and end of life stage (C1-C4). Global Warming Potential (GWP) is the parameter which measures the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the building at different stages along the life cycle. In India, there is limited data available on the life cycle carbon emission from buildings, particularly regarding the embodied carbon. Collecting data and computing embodied carbon for different types of buildings would pave the way for developing a baseline and strategies to move towards net/near zero carbon buildings.
