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Sustainability
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Green Building: CO2 Emissions in the Construction Industry
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Green Building: CO2 Emissions in the Construction Industry

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 January 2026 | Viewed by 1728

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jindao Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Intelligent Transportation and Engineering, Guangzhou Maritime University, Guangzhou, China
Interests: sustainable construction; carbon emission; climate resilience; climate risk
Prof. Dr. Hongping Yuan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Management, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Interests: sustainable built environments; mega project management; digital technologies in construction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Qian Shi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Interests: green and sustainable construction; engineering project management; risk management; digital town construction planning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The construction industry is a great contributor to a nation’s total CO2 emissions due to its resource-intensive characteristic and emission-intensive upstream activities. Addressing CO2 emissions in the construction industry is gaining increasing attention and is becoming crucial for our sustainable future. Despite green buildings can mitigate CO2 emissions of buildings from a life cycle perspective, there is still a lack of in-depth analysis and discussion on their impact on the construction industry's overall CO2 emissions.

This Special Issue aims to present and discuss findings related to green buildings and CO2 emissions in the construction industry, promoting scientific contributions related to sustainability and sustainable construction.

Dr. Jindao Chen
Prof. Dr. Hongping Yuan
Prof. Dr. Qian Shi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • green building
  • carbon emissions
  • construction industry
  • sustainable construction
  • low carbon construction
  • green building materials
  • lean construction
 

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1090 KiB  
Article
Analyzing CO2 Emissions by CSI Categories: A Life Cycle Perspective
by Gulbin Ozcan-Deniz and Sarah Rodovalho
Sustainability 2025, 17(15), 6830; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156830 - 27 Jul 2025
Viewed by 417
Abstract
As the construction industry continues to evolve, energy consumption of buildings, particularly CO2 emissions, has become a critical focus for sustainable development. The need for effective design decisions regarding the selection of materials throughout the project life cycle is apparent, yet the [...] Read more.
As the construction industry continues to evolve, energy consumption of buildings, particularly CO2 emissions, has become a critical focus for sustainable development. The need for effective design decisions regarding the selection of materials throughout the project life cycle is apparent, yet the link between specifications and CO2 emissions has not been set yet. This study presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of CO2 emissions across various Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) categories, aiming to identify the carbon footprint of different building systems and materials. The methodology focuses on using 3D building model case studies to evaluate the design decisions versus their impact on global warming potential (GWP). The results of this study emphasize that within CSI categories, concrete divisions consistently emerge as the predominant contributors to GWP, exceeding 75% in several instances. Following closely, metals contribute approximately 50% in multiple projects. The study also explores sustainable design options across CSI divisions to provide insights into building components contributing most to a building’s overall carbon footprint. This deeper understanding of sustainable design principles regarding CSI divisions and their impact on carbon footprint reduction will help sustainable designers and construction managers to implement carbon-conscious material choices and design strategies early in the planning phase. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Building: CO2 Emissions in the Construction Industry)
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38 pages, 22179 KiB  
Article
Carbon Accounting in Construction Engineering: Methodology and Applications
by Yuechen Wu, Chaofeng Zhang, Yanzhao Liu, Wenxuan Deng, Sanpo Jike and Fushen Liu
Sustainability 2025, 17(11), 5090; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17115090 - 1 Jun 2025
Viewed by 787
Abstract
In the context of global carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this work proposes a carbon accounting method for construction project based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) and construction cost quota. By incorporating national standards, relevant databases and publications, three major global carbon accounting databases—ICE, [...] Read more.
In the context of global carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this work proposes a carbon accounting method for construction project based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) and construction cost quota. By incorporating national standards, relevant databases and publications, three major global carbon accounting databases—ICE, EU-EFDB, and IPCC-EFDB—were expanded to enable each database to independently perform full life-cycle carbon accounting for specific construction projects in China. The method is capable of flexibly selecting different databases and quantifying the carbon emissions of construction projects, by directly importing bill of quantities. Finally, a web-based carbon accounting tool was developed, and three databases were used to conduct full life-cycle carbon accounting on real-world construction projects, to verify the feasibility of the proposed method and compare the carbon accounting results across different databases. Our study showed that, although there were discrepancies in carbon emission estimation across different stages and processes for the construction projects, the proportions of carbon emissions at each stage and process were relatively consistent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Building: CO2 Emissions in the Construction Industry)
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