Environmental impact assessment of on-site and off-site construction logistics activities – A case study analysis from Norway

Abstract

Construction site activities are one of the main contributors to GHG emissions in the construction industry. There are several on-going initiatives on finding low and zero emission solutions for reducing GHG emission from construction sites. The objective of this paper is to investigate the emission reduction potential from fossil and emission free on-site and off-site construction logistic activities based on actual data collected from a case study from Oslo. The paper firstly presents definitions and step wise approach for fossil free and emission free construction site activities. Then, GHG emission calculation from the logistic activities using LCA methods and scenario analysis to evaluate the environmental performance of fossil and emission free solutions considered in the selected case study. The results illustrated the GHG emission reduction potential from electrification of construction machineries and transport of material, collaboration between construction site for more efficient use and reuse of excavated masses, modal shift for transport of materials as well as the importance of clear description of the system boundary and background data. Availability of electric machinery, electrified means of transport and sufficient electricity supply, lack of requirements for low-emission material transport solutions, lack of data for LCA studies are identified as some challenges. Moreover, the study highlighted the potential contribution of increased demand for emission free solutions through public procurement to facilitate a change in the industry by overcoming these barriers.