International Journal of Engineering Research and Advanced Technology (IJERAT) E-ISSN : 2454-6135 DOI: 10.31695/IJERAT.2020.3628 Volume.6, Issue 8 August -2020 www.ijerat.com Page 1 Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY *Corresponding Author: casio2022002@gmail.com Assessment of Carbon Emissions for the Construction of Buildings Using Life Cycle Analysis: Case Study of Lagos State 1 Adekunle A., 1 Osagie Ibhadode, 2 A.P Ibhadode and 1 Shawon Msughter Caesar 1 Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) (Federal Ministry of Science and Technology) 2 The Delft Institute of Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands Cintojon Company (Nigeria) Limited, Ota-Lagos, Nigeria. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Environmental impacts associated with construction, use, and end-of-life of buildings have become a great concern to all and sundry especially as it concerns the health of people. This study aims to evaluate and ascertain the level of carbon emissions for the construction of a case residential building using life cycle analysis. In an attempt to determine carbon emissions at different stages, the following areas were considered: materials consumed during formwork construction, materials for structure, transportation of materials from factory to site, energy consumed by tenants, carbon emission removals and disposal of debris. Emission factors were obtained from local sources to have cognitive and representative results. The results therefore established that the total carbon emission throughout the life cycle of the case building is 1,212 ton of which was found to pose minor threat to the environment according to standard. It was also deduced that carbon emission due to energy consumed by tenants emerged the most significant with 47% followed by materials for structure (36%), materials consumed during formwork construction (8%), materials based on demolition (7%) while transportation of materials from factory to site and debris to disposal site emerged as the least significant with just 1% each. Overall, findings suggest that sufficient reduction of carbon emissions in building construction starts from the extraction, processing and manufacturing of building materials. Hence, law makers and professionals in the built industry should enforce implementable policies that will encourage designs of low carbon and sustainable residential edifice. Keywords: Carbon emission, Residential building, Life cycle analysis. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 1.0 INTRODUCTION Of late, climate alterations around the globe have shown extraordinary challenge for mankind. A recent statistics show that on average, over 1.5 Pico ton of carbon emissions (PtCO 2 e ) was experienced from 2010 to 2019 [1-3]. This occurrence is predominant because of the kind of activities people engage in. Such activities include cement production [4], deforestation [5], burning of fossil fuel and the likes. The urgent need to ascertain the level of emission in our environment cannot be overemphasized. Global warming [6] effects would eventually become calamitous, except adequate reduction strategies of greenhouse gases are put in place. These gases trap the heat from the sun and cause a gradual rise in temperature of the earth’s atmosphere [7]. At present, the built environment shows the highest emitter of greenhouse gases [8-10]. As a result, the built environment has an undeniable part to play as buildings are responsible for more than two-thirds of the carbon emissions across the globe [11-12]. Residential buildings have also been found to take up a major portion of energy consumption [13] with carbon emissions resulting from energy used for construction and demolition of buildings [14]. The increase in residential buildings and continuous growth in 2 CO e