2.5. Net-Zero Carbon Building

 set a benchmark of 49% of renewables in buildings and  require increase of use of renewable energy in heating and cooling by +1.1%

However, the economic investments are not sufficient to support these goals. Even though there is a slight increase in sustainable and energy-efficient measures, amounting to $152 billion in 2019, they are a small portion of the $5.8 trillion spent in the construction sector. It is estimated that for every $1 spent on energy efficiency measures, $37 are spent on conventional construction technologies and materials[4]. Therefore, strategies and incentives to make buildings net-zero energy and zero-carbon are a key part of the global decarbonisation strategy and must become the primary form of building construction across all economies to achieve net zero emissions by 2050[4].

Strategies to make buildings net-zero energy and zero-carbon are a key part of the global decarbonisation strategy and must become the primary form of building construction across all economies to achieve net zero emissions by 2050[4].

Nevertheless, constructing net-zero buildings can be achieved by available technologies and design approaches, to name a few, such as: sustainable and bioclimatic building design, conventional and advanced high-performance facade systems, sustainable materials and material-efficient building design etc. Also, digitalization and smart technologies can substantially contribute, such as building management systems, smart materials, smart technologies etc. In order to achieve net-zero carbon building sector by 2050, all stakeholders involved in the construction industry need to contribute to the effort to reverse this trend and there must be an increase in decarbonization actions and their impact by a factor of 5[4].

In order to achieve net-zero carbon building sector by 2050, all stakeholdes involved in the construction industry need to contribute to the effort to reverse this trend and there must be an increase in decarbonization actions and their impact by a factor of 5[4].

As we have seen previously, buildings are held responsible for carbon emissions during their operational phase, by using non-renewable energy which are referred to as operational carbon emissions.

Also buildings are responsible for the carbon emissions which are emitted during the lifecycle of the construction materials which are referred to as embodied carbon emissions.

In this regard, the net-zero carbon buildings can be defined according to two aspects, such as[29]:

 Net zero operational carbon emissions and  Net zero embodied carbon emissions.