An Urban Feasibility Study Into Balancing Upfront Embodied Carbon Emissions Through Integrated Green Areas As Carbon Offsets

Upfront embodied carbon calculations account for concentrated carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere in the production of building materials and construction of buildings. To lower these emissions within a single building site to zero carbon is often extraordinarily difficult and offsets or sequestration are often required. This paper presents an exploration into integrating carbon sequestering green measures into new building design. The exploration looks at five different scales in a case study city, Christchurch, New Zealand. The objective was to test the definition of ‘site’ in a net zero carbon future. It discusses the scientific and social benefit of different strategies at different scales. The paper found that the city and region scale have the best potential for balancing the embodied carbon emissions from new buildings. The scale also has the potential to apply biophilic design logic to the application of strategies to improve the quality of the urban environment.