Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of energy retrofitting strategies for residential buildings in India: A case study

Significant research and regulatory efforts have focused on reducing operational emissions in new residential buildings. However, the consideration of broader life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of these buildings has been limited in the context of India, due to insufficient publicly available data. Energy retrofitting is a conventional approach for reducing the operational emissions of building, however, the impacts of embodied and life cycle GHG emissions are rarely considered. In this research, a low-rise reinforced concrete residential building located in the temperate climatic zone of India is assessed to analyse the net life cycle GHG emission implications of 216 retrofitting scenarios, each resulting in a distinct retrofitted building model. Streamlined life cycle assessment, along with DesignBuilder for dynamic energy simulation, are used to quantify the life cycle GHG emission impacts of the adopted scenarios. A total of 213 retrofitting scenarios resulted in a net life cycle benefit, whereas 3 scenarios associated with combined strategies of fenestration weatherstripping, and roof insulation did not yield any life cycle GHG benefits when compared to the base building. This may help inform the development of targeted policies, and actions to more consciously improve India’s existing residential stock.