Reducing the embodied carbon of concrete-framed buildings through improved design and specification: Influence of building typologies, construction types and concrete mix
Concrete used for the construction of buildings accounts for approximately 60 % of concrete production in Europe. At the same time, design approaches and materials specification are fundamental components of the delivery of total structural designs of concrete buildings that influence the amount and type of concrete used and procured for a building.
This study investigates potential reductions on the embodied carbon of concrete framed buildings through combined improvements in structural design approaches and materials specification. Different design practices across Europe are analysed for residential and office buildings, together with effects of construction types on material efficiency of different slab structural systems and concrete mixes.
Three distinct scenarios towards decarbonisation of concrete buildings are derived: a) Baseline, which accounts for conventional current building design, b) Transition, which involves achievable measures with little or no new technical development required and c) Ambitious, which involves a more optimistic view of possible interventions available over time. It was found that in the transition scenario, potential reductions of embodied carbon of the order of 40 % for the residential sector, and 29 % office sector are possible compared to the baseline. In the more ambitious scenario, these savings could be improved to 55 % and 61 %, respectively.
