BUILDINGS AND ITS IMPACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE. There is this natural earth environment, a significant part of which has an overlay of man-made buildings and infrastructure among other things, the activities of which play a fundamental role in harnessing natural resources and providing energy, material and movement for the pursuit of human sustenance, experience and happiness. However, these activities propel a substantial amount of emissions to the atmosphere that gets to stay there anywhere from a few months to 50,000 years (or perhaps forever) depending on the emission type. While in the atmosphere, these increased concentration of gases traps and radiates heat, forcing the climate to change. This in turn threatens the sustenance, experience and happiness of humans. The impact is on a global scale affecting the entire ecosystem. Now, it becomes imperative even more than ever, that humans become aware of the intensity of this problem and work together to alleviate the problem or achieve a state of resiliency. Substantial groundwork has been done by organizations such as IPCC by bringing together resources, researchers and experts to a common unified ground to raise awareness and address issues of climate change. International Protocols such as Montreal Protocol has successfully worked together with 179 countries which has helped in alleviating the ozone depletion issue. There is the Kyoto Protocol initiated from Japan which has played a major role in increasing the awareness and importance of curbing the greenhouse gas emissions and led to the instituting of global environmental organizations, international standards and rating systems. The building sector is one of the major causes or contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. The operating energy use during the service life of the building has been the highest contributor and the major focus of reduction in the past few decades with a high proportion of attainment towards low or zero energy and emissions buildings, that too at very competitive price tags in comparison to conventional buildings largely due to regulatory requirements, policy instruments, technological advancements and declining costs. The embodied energy and emissions of building materials and products is the second major contributor and has gained recent attention, especially with the advent of low energy buildings taking down life cycle operational energy use. Recent IPCC Assessment Report 5 Chapter 9 on Buildings1 make the following important points about embodied energy and emissio...
