Author(s)

Gonzalo Fernandez-Sanchez, Fernando Rodriguez-Lopez

Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; 2Department of Civil Engineering Construction, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain..

With the new Technical Code for Construction and Energy Certification (application of the EPBD in Spain) energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are now taken into consideration during building’s operating phase. There is no doubt that this is a step forward. However, economic cost and emissions involved in extracting materials, manufacture, transport and installing on site (embodied energy in the materials used in construction) can be considerable and even more when promotor seeks to improve the building’s energy rating with the corresponding increases in insulation, improvements in cladding and so on. Two case studies are used (new construction and renovation) in order to analyze both economic cost and CO₂ emissions in construction and operating stage (using LIDER and CALENER softwares) of two actual cases.

Carbon Dioxide; Embodied Energy; Building; Energy Certification

G. Fernandez-Sanchez and F. Rodriguez-Lopez, "Importance of CO₂ Emissions in Construction Phase. Two Case Studies: New Construction and Renovated Building," Low Carbon Economy, Vol. 3 No. 1, 2012, pp. 11-15. doi: 10.4236/lce.2012.31002.