A study on CO₂ emissions in end-of-life phase of residential buildings in Korea: Demolition, transportation and disposal of building materials

Architecture and building industry have been made diversified efforts to create a construction environment that promotes resource recycling. Many studies have been done to better understand and reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions throughout a building's lifecycle. However, to promote sustainable development and a construction environment that facilitates resource recycling, more understanding and research is needed on energy consumption and CO₂ emissions during the stage of dismantling a building. Noting that, this research investigates CO₂ emissions in a building's End-Of-Life (EOL) phase that includes dismantling of a building, transport and disposal of the waste generated in the course of dismantling residential buildings in Korea. According to the results of this study, CO₂ emissions in a building's EOL phase was 3,561kg CO₂/100m² for apartments, 3,184 kgCO₂/100m² for brick houses and 1,137 kg CO₂/100m² for wooden houses. The results showed that transport and disposal process of demolition waste accounts for 90% of all CO₂ emissions in a building's EOL phase. From this finding, it is necessary to have a proper, effective strategy for transport and disposal of demolition waste from dismantled buildings' in order to reduce CO₂ emissions during a building's EOL phase.