Conceptual model on estimating embodied carbon in construction supply chains using value chain and blockchain

Abstract

Building construction contributes up to 40-50% of the global carbon emissions while Australian building sector accounts for about 36% of the overall carbon emissions. Thus, building industry is the key control point to create a low carbon economy thus ensuring a sustainable environment. Lifecycle carbon consists of Operational Carbon (OC) and Embodied Carbon (EC). The latest trend of introducing zero carbon projects focus on reducing OC through usage of various materials such as insulation, triple glazing among others, which contribute to increase of the EC in the building. Hence, focus should be on reducing overall net carbon emission, not OC alone. Thus, the study focuses on reducing the EC of construction projects. EC estimating can be carried out using different databases and tools. However, due to the issues existent in these databases and tools, the accuracy of the EC estimates prepared using these databases and tools is questionable. Therefore, it is intricately important to introduce an accurate methodology of estimating EC. Hence, the study is aimed at identifying the issues existent in carbon estimating and proposing a conceptual model on estimating EC in construction supply chains accurately. The proposed methodology eliminates the existent issues in carbon estimating