Environmental emissions and energy use from the structural steel erection process: a case study
Date
2011
Authors
Haney, Joshua H., author
Guggemos, Angela A., advisor
Criswell, Marvin, committee member
Clevenger, Caroline, committee member
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Abstract
Over the last two decades, sustainable (or green) building has been proven effective at reducing the environmental impact of buildings in an economically efficient way. In the United States, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system has been at the forefront of the green building movement. LEED accomplishes breadth at the expense of depth and, as a result, many facets of the construction industry are not explicitly addressed by this standard. Specifically, structural steel has been championed as an environmentally responsible building material because of its high recycled content, but only limited investigation has been done into the erection phase environmental implications of the material. To reduce the environmental impact of structural steel construction operations, practitioners must first understand which activities are the most impactful, so that improvement efforts can be properly targeted. Using life cycle assessment (LCA), this case study quantifies the energy consumption and environmental emissions resulting from the erection of the structural steel frame for a mid-sized office building on the campus of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Those data are then used to explore recommendations for environmentally-preferable methods of steel construction. The magnitude of total energy use and pollution emitted during the steel erection process is found to be significant, with CO2 generation totaling 342,000 kg. According to the case study, the major sources of emissions (in descending order of magnitude) are materials transportation to the site, operation of the 100-ton crane, and worker transportation to the site. The most effective strategies for reducing energy consumption and emissions identified by the study are: 1) sourcing materials within 500 miles, 2) shipping only full loads of materials, 3) improving site logistics and crane-sizing to reduce erection time, and 4) switching from an 8-hour to a 10-hour work day. These strategies resulted in reductions in total erection phase energy consumption and CO2 emissions of approximately 17.5%, 8.5%, 6.4%, and 3% respectively.
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Subject
green building
structural steel
life cycle assessment