The development of apartment house life cycle CO2 simple assessment system using standard apartment houses of South Korea

Abstract

This study classified the life cycle of buildings into a construction stage, an operation stage, a maintenance stage and a dissolution/disposal stage, and proposed a CO2 assessment method for each stage for the purpose of creating a simple life cycle CO2 assessment system for apartment houses. Specifically in the construction stage, major construction materials that are the source of more than 80% of CO2 emissions produced during building construction were selected, and a method of evaluating CO2 emissions for five standard apartment houses was proposed. In addition, amounts of CO2 emissions generated during the building operation stage and the maintenance stage were calculated based on the "Green Home Certification System" and the "Apartment House Building Long Term Repair Plan and Repair Rate" of the Korean Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs. For the dissolution/disposal stage, a CO2 assessment method was proposed that would enter into a database the amount of oil used by disposal equipment and other related types of machines, and analyze the process of waste treatment. Also, the potential of applying a simple assessment program was evaluated in connection with a life cycle CO2 assessment simulation utilizing an actual apartment building. Consequently, the results of a building life cycle CO2 assessment using standard apartment houses as proposed in this study indicated a figure of 14,013.66 ton-CO2. That figure is similar to 11,640.00 ton-CO2 for existing apartment houses. In particular, the results of material production in the construction stage and CO2 calculation in the maintenance stage indicated significant results closely approximating the 80% of CO2 emissions attributed to construction material production noted earlier in this study at first. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.