Abstract:
With a share of approximately 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the construction industry
contributes significantly towards climate change. This is why construction projects should not only be
assessed on costs and technical solutions, but also on their carbon emissions. Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) is a tool which can quantify the environmental impacts of a construction project over its entire
lifetime. The objective of this study was to determine the carbon footprint of three types of quay wall
structures, namely sheet pile combi-walls, open piled decks and caissons using an LCA approach. Each
of these quay walls were studied under the same boundary conditions, such as design life, ground
conditions, dimensions, location and so on. The analysis showed that the sheet pile wall has the lowest
carbon footprint whereas the open piled structure has the highest. Furthermore, it could be shown that
the largest share of greenhouse gases (approximately 80%) is emitted during the production of
construction materials. The transportation of materials and construction activities each contributed under
12% to total emissions. The sensitivity analysis showed that with innovative approaches, such as
adapting the concrete mix design, the carbon footprint could be reduced by 26% to 40%.