CARBON FOOTPRINT-BASED APPROACH TO MINIMIZE BUILDING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN EGYPT
JOURNAL OF AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING SECTOR
Volume 14, Issue 50, January 2019, Pages 176 -188
Riham Hagag, Sherif Sheta, Medhat Samra
Abstract
buildings contribute more than 30% to total global GHG emissions. In efforts to reduce global warming, GHG reductions would make a significant contribution (UNEP, 2011). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there are three areas to focus when reducing CO2 emissions from buildings: switching to renewable energy in designing, using green materials in construction, and reducing energy consumption in building operation. This paper aims to investigate world experience in achieving zero carbon community by analyzing and comparing some international and national examples of public buildings and especially focusing on housing sector as it represents the largest proportion among the rest of the building sectors within the city. This paper finally recommends how to mitigate the buildings' environmental negative impact, therefore reducing the energy consumption and the building's carbon footprint whether before construction-stage (by adopting renewable energies), during construction (by integrating environmentally friendly construction materials) or during the use-stage (by applying appropriate techniques in building operation and maintenance).
Keywords
Carbon footprint, CO2 emissions, zero carbon buildings, Environmental Impact, Green materials, Energy consumption
