Structuring a Comprehensive Carbon-Emission Framework for the Whole Lifecycle of Building, Operation, and Construction

The construction industry is responsible for more than 40% of the carbon emissions in the United States. These emissions are generated by energy, water, and materials consumed at different stages of the construction, maintenance, operation, and disposal processes and during the recycling and reusing of construction components as materials or biomass. Carbon-emission modeling is a complex procedure of process and footprint integration for different components either directly and indirectly associated with a service, product, material, or system at different phases. Prior research focused on each phase separately and/or supplemental information from alternative sources because of the lack of available data and information. Even though there are comprehensive lifecycle models covering every phase of a project, these models do not integrate existing models. The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive framework of building lifecycle carbon-emission modeling that would integrate existing models, information, and data. This research integrated prior models and methods, incorporated multitier mechanisms, and developed flexibility within the model so that reliability would be improved for measuring, tracking, and quantifying carbon- and environmental-related features, factors, and variables. This paper discusses the first phase of the research, model development, and testing.