Greenhouse gas emission from construction process of multi-story wooden buildings

The purpose of this study is to investigate environmental impact for construction process of woodbased building. Detailed data collection from construction work is conducted on three multi-story wooden buildings. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission value is calculated for production stage (material production and construction) and operation stage of the buildings, and a ratio of the emission from construction process is observed. The results present that construction phase holds about 20-30% of GHG emission in the production stage. In addition, it is shown that material production phase, construction phase and operation phase of the buildings account for approximately 16-35%, 6-10% and 55-78% of the total GHG emission, respectively. Based on the results, feature of the impact for wood-based construction and an issue regarding the data collection are discussed. This study demonstrates a relevance of construction process in a life cycle assessment of buildings. Since the result of environmental assessment is beneficial for the industry in order to optimize their work environmentally, simple and reliable assessment method is required based on further research.