Abstract

Building energy use accounts for almost 50% of the total CO2 emissions in the UK. Most of
the research has focused on reducing the operational impact of buildings, however in recent years
many studies have indicated the significance of embodied energy in different building types. This paper
primarily focuses on illustrating the relative importance of operational and embodied energy in a
flexible use light distribution warehouse. The building is chosen for the study as it is relatively easy to
model and represents many distribution centres and industrial warehouses in Europe.
A carbon footprinting study was carried out by conducting an inventory of the major installed
materials with potentially significant carbon impact and material substitutions covering the building
structure. Ecotect computer simulation program was used to determine the energy consumption for
the 25 years design life of the building. This paper evaluates alternative design strategies for the
envelope of the building and their effects on the whole life emissions by investigating both embodied
and operational implications of changing the envelope characteristics. The results provide an insight to
quantify the total amount of CO2 emissions saved through design optimisation by modelling embodied
and operational energy.