Acknowledgment to the Reviewers of Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences in 2025
2026-02-06
Low-Carbon Building Codes and Standards: Comparative Evaluation of Global Regulatory Frameworks and Their Environmental Impacts
Authors
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Haibo Lu
Logistics Management Office (Infrastructure Construction Office), TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China
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Zhanpo Yuan
Logistics Management Office (Infrastructure Construction Office), TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China
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Xiaoming Zhang
Logistics Management Office (Infrastructure Construction Office), TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13269Abstract
The construction industry contributes a considerable portion of the world's energy demand and emissions of greenhouse gases; therefore, it is an important area where efforts should be directed in reducing the climate change. Building codes and standards. Low-carbon building codes and standards have become major controlling tools with the aim of enhancing building performance and minimizing environmental impacts. This review offers a comparative analysis of key low-carbon building codes and standards across the world, how they are designed, how they are implemented, and what environmental impacts they report. Both the mandatory building codes and voluntary standards are taken into consideration in both mature and developing areas with varied climates, economic, and institutional backgrounds. The analysis draws out the significant difference in regulatory strategies, such as prescriptive and performance-based models, disparities in implementation capacity, and uneven adoption of carbon-based and life-cycle performance indicators. Literature evidence suggests that reinforced building codes have provided substantial operational energy consumption and emissions containment, especially where a robust compliance system is in place. Voluntary standards tend to show a better level of performance, but are restricted by the market coverage. With the decarbonization of electricity systems, the proportion of embodied carbon and life-cycle emissions becomes significant, and the drawbacks of the existing regulatory frameworks, which continue to emphasize mainly operational energy efficiency, can be seen. The review provides such methodological issues in the evaluation of environmental effectiveness as the use of ex-ante modeling and a lack of post-occupancy data. It concludes with policy implications and further suggestions for improving the low-carbon building regulation through life-cycle-oriented metrics, enhanced enforcement, and the exchange of international knowledge.
Keywords:
Low-Carbon Buildings; Building Codes; Energy Efficiency; Carbon Emissions; Regulatory FrameworksReferences
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How to Cite
Lu, H., Yuan, Z., & Zhang, X. (2026). Low-Carbon Building Codes and Standards: Comparative Evaluation of Global Regulatory Frameworks and Their Environmental Impacts. Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences, 8(8), 1061–1073. https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13269
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Copyright © 2026 Haibo Lu, Zhanpo Yuan, Xiaoming Zhang
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
