A Quantitative Assessment of Cost and Carbon Dioxide Emissions Associated with Industrialized Concrete Basements in Cold-climate Regions
Creators: Vecchio Castillo, Valeria Veronica
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

<p>The building and construction industry aims to reduce its CO2 emissions to reach Net-Zero goals by the year 2050. However, the industry faces the challenge of a possible increase in its CO2 emission levels due to rapid global population growth. Consequently, researchers and practitioners have devised strategies to reduce the CO2 emissions generated during the operational phase of a building’s life cycle. However, other phases with emission reduction potential, including the construction phase, have been largely overlooked. The construction phase generates between 10% and 20% of the total CO2 emissions generated during a building’s life cycle, and these emissions are expected to increase due to rapid global population growth and the corresponding need for additional residential housing. Furthermore, construction material manufacturing, including concrete and cement manufacturing, accounts for approximately 6% of the total CO2 emissions attributable to human activity. In this context, industrialized construction has emerged as an alternative construction method capable of reducing both the overall project duration and the total quantity of materials used in construction projects. These reductions, in turn, can lead to a decrease in the CO2 emissions generated during the construction phase. Despite the potential environmental benefits, though, the high cost of this alternative construction method remains an impediment to its adoption. Moreover, due to the lack of a quantitative method by which to objectively compare the financial and environmental benefits between traditional and industrialized construction methods, decision makers struggle to make sound decisions when selecting the construction method that most closely aligns with their financial and environmental targets. In light of this, this thesis presents a quantitative assessment method for conducting cost and environmental tradeoff analysis between cast-in-place and industrialized (precast) concrete basements for residential buildings in cold-climate regions. Three construction scenarios are considered in the tradeoff analysis: the traditional cast-in-place construction method and two industrialized construction methods, solid-wall precast and ribbed precast structure. Moreover, three criteria are selected for quantifying and comparing the cost and CO2 emissions between these methods: concrete, temporary heating, and site inspections. Simulation models are developed in Simphony.NET to recreate the project schedule for the on-site construction of concrete basements for both the cast-in-place and the two precast construction scenarios. The total cost and CO2 emissions resulting from the use of temporary heating, concrete, and site inspections are then calculated for each of the three scenarios. Finally, a tradeoff analysis is conducted to determine the cost and environmental implications between cast-in-place and industrialized (precast) concrete construction. The key contribution of this thesis is a quantitative method by which to objectively estimate and compare the cost and environmental benefits between traditional and industrialized construction methods. This will aid decision makers in making sound decisions based on empirical information when choosing the most appropriate construction method for a given project. </p>