Assessment of the global warming potential associated with the construction process of healthcare centres

The carbon footprint reveals the emission profile of a healthcare building and, when quantified properly, is useful for the design of effective mitigation plans. This article aims to determine the global warming potential associated with the healthcare centre building process in Spain at a 100-year perspective. To this end, six healthcare centres built between 2007 and 2010 were analysed, and the emissions associated with the manufacturing, transport and placement of materials on site – including the final tests and commissioning of the building – were calculated. The results show that the average CO₂equivalent emission per m² built is 1122.30 kg (standard deviation = 136.46), 1.24 kg (standard deviation = 0.19) per euro spent and 71.35 kg (standard deviation = 7.13) per hour spent on construction. Emissions per user, worker, electrical power and energy consumed were also classified. The material manufacturing and installation stages generate the most emissions, and healthcare centres larger than 2000 m² appear to emit less CO₂equivalent per m² when being built than smaller centres. The construction elements that caused most greenhouse gas emissions were also identified. These parameters allow extracting and designing proposals for improvements in environmental management.