14. Accounting for Embodied Carbon Emissions in Planning and Optimisation of Transport Activities During Construction

To mitigate the environmental impacts of construction-related activities, environmental factors should be incorporated within the planning procedure to inform the decision-making process at all levels. A large amount of embodied carbon of buildings is the result of material processing, transportation and construction. An opportunity therefore exists to alleviate the emissions of greenhouse gasses in the construction industry through optimising the associated construction operations while minimising carbon emissions. In this chapter, the focus is on the applications of smart planning approaches that incorporate the use of mathematical optimisation to manage and mitigate the embodied carbon of buildings, through proposing a relevant decision-making framework. Both on-site and off-site transportation in construction are considered since such operations contribute considerably to embodied carbon of buildings. The interrelation of several classes of well-known and relevant optimisation models is addressed, along with their applications in the planning stages of material transportation. A case study is presented to highlight the major benefits attainable through employing different classes of models within a scheme targeting the reduction of the carbon emissions in the transportation activities of a building’s life cycle.