Title: Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of a net zero carbon building in UAE: a leading initiative in the region

Authors: Rami Alsodi; Fatima Alketbi

Addresses: Department of Public Works, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Public Works, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: Global warming is a major challenge for engineers, researchers, governments, and the entire world. Buildings have a huge contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, especially from the continuous electricity production and consumption of fossil fuels. Net-zero energy buildings (nZEBs) are emerging as a promising solution for an efficient and gradual transition toward clean energy utilisation. Within UAE's vision toward net zero energy in 2050, the Department of Public Works in Sharjah built Sharjah Ports, Customs, and Free Zones Authority Building as an nZEB. This paper performs a life cycle assessment aiming to evaluate the global warming and ozone layer depletion potentials of nZEB building compared to a standard building mode. The results show a reduction of around 70% in these potentials compared to the traditional building model. A further analysis using life cycle costing shows that the nZEB model has 38% less expenditure on electrical energy over 25 years.

Keywords: net-zero energy buildings; nZEB; life cycle assessment; LCA; global warming; ozone depletion; carbon neutrality; carbon footprint; climate change; solar energy; CO₂ emissions; energy efficiency; renewable energy; energy storage; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2025.145109

International Journal of Global Warming, 2025 Vol.35 No.2/3/4, pp.294 - 305

Received: 25 Oct 2023
Accepted: 05 Feb 2024
Published online: 19 Mar 2025 *

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