Embodied carbon footprint analysis of signage industry : insights from two case studies
- Authors: Paresi, Prudvireddy , Javidan, Fatemeh , Sparks, Paul
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: International Conference on Green Building, ICoGB 2023, Malmo, Sweden, 19-21 May 2023, Proceedings of 2023 International Conference on Green Building p. 69-76
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- Description: Embodied carbon has recently become a hot topic among environmentalists and designers, especially after the Paris Agreement on climate change. Embodied carbon refers to the carbon emissions associated with the manufacturing and transportation of building materials and the process of construction. The “Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction” report estimated that the building and construction sector alone contributed nearly 37–39% of global carbon emissions in 2017–2020. To tackle embodied carbon, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has set a bold vision to reduce it by at least 40% by 2030 and achieve net-zero operating carbon in all new buildings. The signage industry plays a significant role in the building industry, as signages are a key component of buildings. Signages serve multiple purposes, such as providing information, enhancing brand identity, and promoting safety. Therefore, it is essential to understand the embodied carbon emissions associated with signage materials used to minimise the overall carbon emissions of construction projects. The present paper aims to study the embodied carbon footprint of the signage industry with the help of two case studies. The embodied carbon factors required while estimating the overall footprint of the signages are taken from Environmental Performance in Construction (EPiC) database. The study identifies the aluminum as the major contributor of the embodied emissions in the signage projects. This study provides insight into the other sources of embodied carbon and makes more informed decisions while selecting signage materials used in designs to create sustainable and economic projects. This information helps to increase sustainability and reduce the carbon footprint of signage projects in the early decision-making stages. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Investigating the relationship between human activity and the urban heat island effect in Melbourne and four other international cities impacted by COVID-19
- Authors: Wai, Cheuk , Muttil, Nitin , Tariq, Muhammad , Paresi, Prudvireddy , Nnachi, R , Ng, A. W. M.
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sustainability (Switzerland) Vol. 14, no. 1 (2022), p.
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- Description: Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our times, even before the onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. One of the main contributors to climate change is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are mostly caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. As the lockdown due to the pandemic has minimised human activity in major cities, GHG emissions have been reduced. This, in turn, is expected to lead to a reduction in the urban heat island (UHI) effect in the cities. The aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between human activity and the UHI intensity and to provide recommendations towards developing a sustainable approach to minimise the UHI effect and improve urban resilience. In this study, historical records of the monthly mean of daily maximum surface air temperatures collected from official weather stations in Melbourne, New York City, Tokyo, Dublin, and Oslo were used to estimate the UHI intensity in these cities. The results showed that factors such as global climate and geographic features could dominate the overall temperature. However, a direct relationship between COVID-19 lockdown timelines and the UHI intensity was observed, which suggests that a reduction in human activity can diminish the UHI intensity. As lockdowns due to COVID-19 are only temporary events, this study also provides recommendations to urban planners towards long-term measures to mitigate the UHI effect, which can be implemented when human activity returns to normal. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.