Development of the Assessment Framework for the Environmental Impacts in Construction

Environmental problems like global warming have now become important issues that should be considered in all industries, including construction. In South Korea, many studies have been conducted to achieve the government's goals of reduction in environmental impacts. However, the research on buildings has only focused on CO₂ emission as a research target despite the fact that other environmental impacts resulting from ozone depletion and acidification should also be considered, in addition to global warming. In this regard, this study attempted to propose assessment criteria and methods to evaluate the environmental performance of the structures from various aspects. The environmental impact category can be divided into global impacts, regional impacts, and local impacts. First, global impacts include global warming, ozone layer depletion, and abiotic resource depletion, while regional impacts include acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation. In addition, noise and vibration occurring in the building construction phase are defined as local impacts. The evaluation methods on the eight environmental impacts will be proposed after analyzing existing studies, and the methods representing each environmental load as monetary value will be presented. The methods presented in this study will present benefits that can be obtained through green buildings with a clear quantitative assessment on structures. Ultimately, it is expected that if the effects of green buildings are clearly presented through the findings of this study, the greening of structures will be actively expanded.