Carbon dioxide reduction in the building life cycle: a critical review

The construction industry is known to be a major contributor to environmental pressures due to its high energy consumption and carbon dioxide generation. The growing amount of carbon dioxide emissions over buildings’ life cycles has prompted academics and professionals to initiate various studies relating to this problem. Researchers have been exploring carbon dioxide reduction methods for each phase of the building life cycle – from planning and design, materials production, materials distribution and construction process, maintenance and renovation, deconstruction and disposal, to the material reuse and recycle phase. This paper aims to present the state of the art in carbon dioxide reduction studies relating to the construction industry. Studies of carbon dioxide reduction throughout the building life cycle are reviewed and discussed, including those relating to green building design, innovative low carbon dioxide materials, green construction methods, energy efficiency schemes, life cycle energy analysis, construction waste management, reuse and recycling of materials and the cradle-to-cradle concept. The review provides building practitioners and researchers with a better understanding of carbon dioxide reduction potential and approaches worldwide. Opportunities for carbon dioxide reduction can thereby be maximised over the building life cycle by creating environmentally benign designs and using low carbon dioxide materials

VEHICULAR EMISSIONS AND CONTROL POLICIES IN HONG KONG

This paper briefly analyzes the state of vehicular pollution and control measures in Hong Kong. Vehicular emissions contribute largely to Hong Kong's air pollution and will become more important as the vehicle fleet expands. Hong Kong is unique in that a large fraction of its vehicles use diesel engines. The analysis here explicitly accounts for the composition of emissions and quantifies the relative magnitude of emissions by each of the five main sources: private cars, taxis, light buses, heavy buses, and lorries. The paper analyzes alternative pollution control policies with respect to effectiveness and efficiency. Copyright 1995 Western Economic Association International.