The adverse effects of the construction from the perspective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions are becoming increasingly important in terms of sustainable development and the growth of construction output. Construction actors involved in the process of creating buildings are responsible for the deterioration of the environmental situation. Flexible tools to motivate construction participants to actively and purposefully decarbonize construction and maintain the production and use of low-carbon technologies should be established. Multilevel institutional tools for regulating extended responsibility of construction participants through organizational and economic incentives for low-carbon design and construction and optimization of building design solutions are presented in the article. Recommendations are also provided to improve the environmental safety of construction, including the establishment of the of low-carbon certification institute for developers, based on a cost estimate of the carbon impact of buildings used in the development of compensatory and incentive measures. The proposed methodological aspects of rational low-carbon design and construction of buildings with minimal carbon footprint will allow to formulate the basic principles of functioning of the low-carbon certification institute of builders as a tool to improve their bid competitiveness.

No abstract

In this paper there is reviewed a concept of adaptation of an urban planning to the changing climate conditions. The statements of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN FCCC, which are actively discussed these days in conditions of new challenges, determine a necessity of applying scientifically reasoned approaches to the landscape development and city transformation considering the climate change in the urban environment. There are discussed statements of climate change adapted concept of the urban planning and are reviewed examples of urban solutions corresponding to these statements. The authors are convinced that problem solving of the climate change adapted urban planning requires an interdisciplinary approach, embracing multiple scientific directions such as ecological, urban, social, technical and technological. In this aspect the concept of adaptation the urban planning to volatile climate conditions represent a long-term strategy of the urban development, which is, first of all, requires a preparation of a roadmap and then decision making, which would conduce to forming a fully comfortable and safe urban environment.

The construction industry’s impact on the environment is overwhelming. Construction and industrial activities account for about 40 % of the global energy consumption that translates into about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. The rapid growth of property development and attention to global climate change make the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a promising area of research. The importance of the carbon impact assessment throughout the life cycle of buildings implies the improvement of emission reduction methods associated with the production and transportation of building materials, selection of optimal design solutions. Evaluation becomes key to the economic modeling of green low-carbon construction. The article addresses the current methods of the eco-economic assessment of the carbon impact of residential buildings at early stages of construction projects. Key construction resources, critically affecting the eco-performance of buildings, are identified. The comparative analysis of functionally equivalent design solutions for mid-rise residential apartment buildings, designed and constructed in the Belgorod region, is carried out. The study shows that the introduction of low-carbon principles into the design of residential buildings should and can be supported by the improved eco-economic evaluation of the construction project efficiency. This allows to capitalize the carbon impact of residential buildings and stimulate the use of effective green low-carbon motivation tools in the building market.

Construction activity is carried out in close interaction with the environment, which has always focused the attention of researchers on ecological safety of construction objects, including low-carbon development and reducing resource intensity and energy consumption at all stages of the building life cycle. The global trends in construction are such areas as decarburization of not only existing but also newly constructed buildings, creating conditions for the implementation of investment and construction projects from a low-carbon development perspective, as well as assessing the carbon impact of implemented projects, including at the early stages of architectural and technological design. The World Green Building Council identifies the carbon impact at early stages as “upfront carbon”, which is becoming increasingly important in a complex life cycle assessment in buildings by low-carbon criterion. The article presents scientific and theoretical approaches to a comprehensive life cycle assessment in buildings from a low-carbon development perspective. The authors have identified the factors allowing to estimate the future building project from the position of low-carbon applied design solutions, suggested a multilayer factor space of the considered indicators (building resources) of carbon impact, proposed a minimization indicator of the building carbon impact, which enables to estimate comprehensively the influence of all factors and indirectly characterize the degree of carbon impact at the life cycle stages, preceding the building operation.