A Data-driven Method to Estimate the On-site GHG Emissions of Construction Activities in the Planning Phase

Abstract

The construction industry is a major contributor to global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Most of the studies in the literature focused on the embodied emissions of construction activities with little attention to the on-site emissions. This thesis demonstrates a method to estimate the on-site GHG emissions of construction activities in the planning phase. The method is then applied to 974 earthwork activities that are obtained from RS Means and the GHG emission per unit of output is estimated for each. Since during the planning phase detailed data about the construction activities is usually not available, this study has also developed statistical relationships between on-site GHG emissions and other better-known quantities (cost). In the case of the earthwork activities that are analyzed, I found that there is a strong correlation (R2 = 0.9) between the cost and on-site GHG emissions with a correlation factor of 0.31 (kg CO2 eq/$).