Onsite Emissions from Building Construction

Toward Environmentally Sustainable Construction Processes: The U.S. and Canada’s Perspective on Energy Consumption and GHG/CAP Emissions

(17 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2, 354-370)

Key Quotes:

“The built environment .. accounts for approximately 40% of total energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally”

“the construction industry generates the third highest GHG emissions among U.S. industrial sectors.. did not account for on-site energy consumption from the use of electricity and natural gas”

“the construction sectors accounts for 6% of light on-road truck use and 17% of medium/heavy truck use in the U.S. “

“Among criteria air pollutants, construction equipment causes a disproportionately high share of PM2.5 and NOx in national inventories, equivalent to 2.1% and 3.9%” <for US and Canada…if the use of on-road trucks in construction is included, the CAP emissions from this industry would increase by 32% for PM10, 96% for NOx and 125% for VOC”

“Exhaust emissions from Canadian construction sectors .. cause a high share of NOx in Canada’s national inventories, equivalent to 5.5%…Fugitive emissions resulting from construction operations .. accounting for 18% of PM10 and 16% of PM2.5 in Canada’s national inventories. “

“a typical earthmoving operation under assumed conditions generates around 363 g of CO2, 4.7 g of NOx, 1.53 g of CO, and 0.037 g of PM for excavating 1 m3 of dirt”

“<LEED rating system> does not provide any credit to address directly exhaust emissions from operating construction equipment, which is the highest contributor of emissions from construction processes”

“two types of environmental incentives for reducing emissions from construction processes: grant programs, which provide direct funding to equipment owners to replace old equipment with new and cleaner equipment, and tax incentives, which offer tax exemptions, tax deduction, or tax credits to spur the use of technologies for reducing emissions”

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