Carbon footprint of construction industry: A global review and supply chain analysis

Abstract

This paper conducts a global review and a macro-level supply chain analysis focusing on carbon footprint of construction industry worldwide for the period between 2009 and 2020 using the Scopus database. A total of 1833 journal articles are revealed with focus on carbon footprint in the field of construction in general, of which only 115 (6% of the total) studies have a macro-level analysis of the construction sector, providing a more holistic overview of the construction sector from various aspects. These macro-level studies were reviewed and classified based on journal, country, year, method, scope of analysis, type of construction, and period. The findings showed that approximately 60% of these studies focus on the Chinese construction industry and the majority of studies analyzed national-level (75%) and city-level (18%) carbon footprints of construction. On the contrary, global-level analysis has a lower share, which accounted for only 6% of reviewed articles. The review showed that more than 20% of studies use the input-output analysis as the main methodological approach to quantify macro-level carbon emission from construction sector, which is followed by the process-based life cycle assessment with 10% share, where more bottom-up approaches are employed. There are only a handful of articles found in the literature using a hybrid life cycle assessment and global multiregional input-output analysis for carbon footprint accounting of construction. Furthermore, there is also no study found in the literature, which presented a comprehensive regional and global supply chain analysis of construction carbon footprints. The results revealed that the largest portion of carbon emissions stem from the regional and global supply chains of the construction industries. The authors concluded that carbon reduction policies should not only consider the limited regional impacts; however, it must take into account the role of indirect, complex and interconnected global supply chains of construction industries.