Life cycle embodied greenhouse gas emissions of new residential buildings in Uganda, A case study - Material Quantities & Modelling

The population in many developing countries is growing at relatively high rates amidst a severe housing deficit. One such country is Uganda where the demand for houses is escalating. The resulting surge in the construction of houses has led to increased use of building materials, both locally produced and imported. This heightened construction activity negatively impacts the environment since the supply chains of individual building materials and entire buildings are associated with a considerable greenhouse gas emission. However, little research has been conducted to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with construction of new residential houses in Uganda. The major challenge in this regard is the lack of context-specific environmental flow data associated with building materials that could be used to estimate buildings environmental impacts through life cycle assessment. This study explored the use of proxy data compiled using hybrid life cycle inventory analysis for the Australian context to estimate life cycle embodied greenhouse gas emissions associated with a new detached residential building in Uganda. The results indicate that a two-storey single-family house accounts for approximately 945 kgCO2-e/m2 of embodied greenhouse gas emissions. The findings in this study highlight several implications for policymaking in Uganda and similar contexts about the best approaches and data sources to use when considering developing tools like life cycle assessment-based benchmarks for buildings. Additionally, the findings emphasise the need to further develop low-emission local construction technologies, and biogenic and geogenic material substitutes, and to consider regulating house size to effectively reduce building-related greenhouse gas emissions.