Carbon footprint assessment of IBS materials at construction site

Abstract

Industrialised Building System (IBS) promotes more sustainable construction activities as compared to the conventional construction methods. However, the level of acceptance to IBS in the construction industry is still considered low in Malaysia. One of the main reasons was due to the lack of awareness towards sustainability development. This study was conducted to estimate the amount of carbon footprint produced by IBS during its manufacturing and construction stages. The study was also conducted to estimate the amount of carbon footprint in different types of IBS components per cubic meter of volume using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to ease future research through the comparison of the carbon footprint of IBS with the conventional building system. A case study has been carried out on a new residential construction in Pauh, Perlis. Data were taken from the production and construction on one unit block of student hostel of five storey house constructed using IBS based on “gate to site” concept. Results from the data analysis shows the amount of carbon footprint for a residential type IBS construction based on the raw materials and resources in the manufacturing and construction of IBS components. As a result, the awareness towards sustainable construction using IBS can be improved