Life Cycle Carbon Dioxide Emissions Assessment in the Design Phase: A Case of a Green Building in Vietnam

Abstract

Buildings are responsible for about 30% of the total CO₂ emissions globally. To reduce this amount of CO₂, developing green buildings is one of the best approaches. However, this approach is undeveloped in Vietnam due to lacking methods to evaluate design alternatives to meet the criteria of green buildings. This paper presents a life-cycle CO₂ analysis (LCCO₂A) as a tool to support the decision-making process in the design phase of a 75-year-lifespan green building in Vietnam. The study conducts LCCO₂A for two design alternatives (with different bricks usage and glass types) and points out the reasons for the differences. Comparing the first alternative with the second one, the results show slight variations in the amount of CO₂ emissions in the erection and demolition phases (with an increase of 21.81 tons and a reduction of 106.1 tons of CO₂eq, respectively), and a significant difference in the operation phase (10,631.52 tons of CO₂eq or 58.34% reduction). For the whole life-cycle, the second design scenario, which uses “greener” materials shows a great decrease of 10,715.81 tons of CO₂eq or 37.54%. By comparing its results with the findings in the literature, this research proves the environmental dominance of green buildings over other building categories.