Environmental Performance and Cost Assessment of Precast Structural Elements for Cleaner Construction Solutions: LCA Approach

Abstract

The construction sector across the world involves constructing huge buildings, which usually consumes enormous energy, causing an incredibly damaging effect on the environment in terms of raw material usage, greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted, and waste generated in huge quantities, which has drawn much attention from conservationists. Though several preventive measures have been developed to reduce the impact of construction, they are often ignored or mismanaged. Thus, things must be examined in detail with appropriate environmental tools to provide a clear view of the emission released into the environment and mitigate the problem from a broader perspective. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one tool used for quantifying the emissions into the environment and economic impacts of the chosen product/process. As a result, this study investigates the effects of the precast structural elements for building and their carbon footprint at the different construction phases based on the LCA methodology. The construction phases include (a) the preoperational phase/building construction, (b) the operation phase, and (c) the postoperational phase/building demolition and inventory data are collected from the selected building. The results show that the precast structure’s energy (23.33 kW · h/m2) was less compared with reviewed case studies. The global warming potential (GWP) of the present study, 16.55 kg CO2 eq/m2, was the least among all the studies. The life cycle cost (LCC) analysis of buildings was performed, and the LCC of precast structures was 4.78% less than the conventional construction. The study evaluates and compares each phase’s emissions and identifies specific hotspots for emissions into the environment. Finally, the authors believe that the study provides valuable insights into the potential environmental impacts for the relevant stakeholders and experts.