Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India

Abstract The building sector contributes to 40% of energy consumption and one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions globally. The building’s energy use involves operational energy (OE) for comfort and operations, along with the embodied energy (EE) embedded in the building materials and the energy s...

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Main Authors: Bedshruti Sen, Gunjan Kumar, Biswajit Thakur, Amit Dutta
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2025-03-01
Series:Discover Civil Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s44290-025-00223-x
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author Bedshruti Sen
Gunjan Kumar
Biswajit Thakur
Amit Dutta
author_facet Bedshruti Sen
Gunjan Kumar
Biswajit Thakur
Amit Dutta
author_sort Bedshruti Sen
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The building sector contributes to 40% of energy consumption and one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions globally. The building’s energy use involves operational energy (OE) for comfort and operations, along with the embodied energy (EE) embedded in the building materials and the energy spent over the building’s lifetime during building construction and maintenance. This paper aims to establish a methodology for estimating both the embodied and operational energy and embodied and operational GHG emissions of an educational institute campus in Kolkata, India while exploring the cumulative energy and environmental performance of various façade construction materials. The study further identifies the best-performing façade construction material in terms of energy and environmental performance. The embodied and operational energy and the environmental performance of the seven masonry units, two types of mortar, and two kinds of plaster options are compared. The operational energy was in the range of 146 to 166 kWh/m2/Year for the base case, which involved the typically practiced solid burnt clay brick walls. The study revealed, that replacing the conventional solid burnt clay bricks along with cement mortar and cement plaster, with cement stabilized soil blocks in combination of cement mortar and gypsum plaster can curtail the overall energy requirement by 19.35% and improve the environmental performance by reducing the cumulative GHG emissions by 8.31%. A complete life cycle analysis covering the entire building lifecycle stages is also carried out and the cement stabilized soil block walls show 5.0% lesser life cycle energy consumption and 6.14% lesser life cycle GHG emission over the baseline. Graphical Abstract
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spelling doaj-art-2ad607ae93014189801d1eb9fef484d42025-08-20T02:49:01ZengSpringerDiscover Civil Engineering2948-15462025-03-012112510.1007/s44290-025-00223-xComparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, IndiaBedshruti Sen0Gunjan Kumar1Biswajit Thakur2Amit Dutta3Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur UniversityUniversity of Engineering and ManagementDepartment of Civil Engineering, Meghnad Saha Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur UniversityAbstract The building sector contributes to 40% of energy consumption and one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions globally. The building’s energy use involves operational energy (OE) for comfort and operations, along with the embodied energy (EE) embedded in the building materials and the energy spent over the building’s lifetime during building construction and maintenance. This paper aims to establish a methodology for estimating both the embodied and operational energy and embodied and operational GHG emissions of an educational institute campus in Kolkata, India while exploring the cumulative energy and environmental performance of various façade construction materials. The study further identifies the best-performing façade construction material in terms of energy and environmental performance. The embodied and operational energy and the environmental performance of the seven masonry units, two types of mortar, and two kinds of plaster options are compared. The operational energy was in the range of 146 to 166 kWh/m2/Year for the base case, which involved the typically practiced solid burnt clay brick walls. The study revealed, that replacing the conventional solid burnt clay bricks along with cement mortar and cement plaster, with cement stabilized soil blocks in combination of cement mortar and gypsum plaster can curtail the overall energy requirement by 19.35% and improve the environmental performance by reducing the cumulative GHG emissions by 8.31%. A complete life cycle analysis covering the entire building lifecycle stages is also carried out and the cement stabilized soil block walls show 5.0% lesser life cycle energy consumption and 6.14% lesser life cycle GHG emission over the baseline. Graphical Abstracthttps://doi.org/10.1007/s44290-025-00223-xOperational energy (OE)Embodied energy (EE)Wall optionsEnergy performanceGHG emissionLife cycle analysis
spellingShingle Bedshruti Sen
Gunjan Kumar
Biswajit Thakur
Amit Dutta
Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India
Discover Civil Engineering
Operational energy (OE)
Embodied energy (EE)
Wall options
Energy performance
GHG emission
Life cycle analysis
title Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India
title_full Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India
title_fullStr Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India
title_full_unstemmed Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India
title_short Comparative assessment of energy performance, GHG emission, and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in Kolkata, India
title_sort comparative assessment of energy performance ghg emission and environmental performance of exterior wall alternatives for the buildings in an educational campus in kolkata india
topic Operational energy (OE)
Embodied energy (EE)
Wall options
Energy performance
GHG emission
Life cycle analysis
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s44290-025-00223-x
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AT biswajitthakur comparativeassessmentofenergyperformanceghgemissionandenvironmentalperformanceofexteriorwallalternativesforthebuildingsinaneducationalcampusinkolkataindia
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