Mitigating the Energy Consumption and the Carbon Emission in the Building Structures by Optimization of the Construction Processes

Abstract

For decades, among other industries, the construction sector has accounted for high energy consumption and emissions. As the energy crisis and climate change have become a growing concern, mitigating energy usage is a significant issue. The operational and end of life phases are all included in the building life cycle stages. Although the operation stage accounts for more energy consumption with higher carbon emissions, the embodied stage occurs in a time-intensive manner. In this paper, an attempt has been made to review the existing methods, aiming to lower the consumption of energy and carbon emission in the construction buildings through optimizing the construction processes, especially with the lean construction approach. First, the energy consumption and emissions for primary construction materials and processes are introduced. It is followed by a review of the structural optimization and lean techniques that seek to improve the construction processes. Then, the influence of these methods on the reduction of energy consumption is discussed. Based on these methods, a general algorithm is proposed with the purpose of improving the construction processes’ performance. It includes structural optimization and lean and life cycle assessments, which are expected to influence the possible reduction of energy consumption and carbon emissions during the execution of construction works.