Monitoring and reporting of buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions: implementation in the Austrian building submission procedure

None of the indicators underlying the 169 targets of the 17 UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) allow for the tracking of buildings´ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Due to the continuously decreasing GHG budget and the significant contribution of the building sector to GHG emissions, in this study a new indicator and implementation steps for its practical application are proposed. By the application of the indicator GHG emissions have to be determined once during the building submission procedure and ultimately after completion of the building to obtain a usage permit. Finally, the results must be available to the statistical offices. A simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to calculate the GHG emissions of buildings. The GHG emission benchmark values for comparison are derived by carbon budget approaches. The study presents the theoretical process for the implementation of the proposed indicator in the course of the building submission and introduces the necessary methods. In addition, the decision scenarios after the submission are highlighted as well as a step-by-step time frame for the practical implementation of the indicator and the necessary implementation measures are presented. The developed indicator and the proposed tracking strategy help to address the current lack of effective monitoring mechanisms for GHG emissions from buildings and further improve the emissions database in the buildings sector. Given the importance of the building sector as a significant contributor to GHG emissions and the continuous decrease in global GHG budgets, it is crucial to establish effective tools to measure and monitor these emissions.