Carbon Footprints of Urban Residential Buildings: A Household Survey-Based Approach

With China’s rapid urbanization process, massive and extensive construction materials are aggregated as stock in urban areas. Understanding the carbon footprints of residential buildings is crucial for achieving the goal of low-carbon cities. In this study, to reveal the emission characteristics of residential buildings regarding carbon footprint, stratified random sampling was developed, and a face-to-face questionnaire was conducted, to obtain critical information on residential buildings and the socio-economic status of 1092 families from 46 communities in Xiamen City, China. The community buildings’ structures were identified, and carbon emissions from the residential buildings were quantified based on analysis of the entire building life cycle. The building life cycle can be divided into six stages: extraction and production; transportation; construction; operation; demolition; and recycling. The household carbon footprints ranged from 0.37 tCO<inf>2</inf>/year to 22.45 tCO<inf>2</inf>/year; the per capita carbon footprints ranged from 0.19 tCO<inf>2</inf>/year to 11.23 tCO<inf>2</inf>/year. Overall, for the 46 surveyed communities, the average household and per capita carbon footprints were 4.11 tCO<inf>2</inf>/year and 1.4 tCO<inf>2</inf>/year, respectively. The total carbon footprints of urban residential buildings were 4.86 MtCO<inf>2</inf>/year. Analysis of the extraction and production stage revealed that steel recycling could avoid almost 0.05 MtCO<inf>2</inf>/year. No significant correlations were found between energy use awareness and energy use. The findings can be used by Chinese energy policymakers to understand the views of various energy users, and to re-attune the efforts against these opinions and interests. However, we consider this study a start and not an end to the importance of gauging opinions on energy security from the population of energy users. Nonetheless, awareness campaigns through print and electronic media could be another tool for life cycle emissions reduction in building sector.