Reducing Emissions through Low-Carbon and Biomaterials: The Case of Green Office Enjoy, Paris
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.9744/acesa.v7i1.14590Keywords:
biomaterial, embodied carbon, fly ash replacementAbstract
Drastic transformation in the construction industry is required to achieve global net-zero targets while accommodating the continuing need to build to anticipate the growing population. With the increase implementation of energy efficient building, the significant of embodied carbon becomes higher. The use of biomaterial has great potential to reduce building emissions. This paper presents a case study that has been built with engineered timber components, and examines to what extent, a further reduction of embodied emissions can be performed. Three material replacements were proposed to further decarbonize the building emissions, and the embodied carbon reductions resulted by changing the timber specification and fly ash use in concrete mixture were assessed quantitatively with embodied carbon assessment. Results show that by replacing the building materials with lower carbon options, the embodied carbon of the case study can be reduced from 52 to 242 tons of CO2e or 2.82 to 12,99 kgCO2e/m2.
References
Austria-architects. (2019). Green Office® Enjoy timber and plus-energy. https://www.austria-architects.com/en/baumschlager-eberle-architekten-lustenau/project/green-office-r-enjoy-timber-and-plus-energy
Arqa. (2019, March 18). Green Office®, a sustainability milestone. https://arqa.com/arquitectura/green-office-enjoy-paris-batignolles.html
Arquitectura Viva. (n.d.). Green office ENJOY Building, Paris. https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/edificio-de-oficinas-green-office-enjoy-7
Baumschlager Eberie Architekten. (2018). Green Office® ENJOY Paris, France. https://www.baumschlager-eberle.com/en/work/projects/projekte-details/green-officer-enjoy-1/
Beama. (2022, March 15). How can we decarbonise the built environment? https://www.beama.org.uk/what-s-new/news/how-can-we-decarbonise-the-built-environment.html
Brandner, R., Tomasi, R., Moosbrugger, T., Serrano, E., & Dietsch, P. (Eds.). (2018). Properties, testing and design of cross laminated timber. Shaker Verlag. https://doi.org/10.2370/9783844061437
Brandner, R., Flatscher, G., Ringhofer, A., Schickhofer, G., & Thiel, A. (2016). Cross laminated timber (CLT): Overview and development. European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, 74, 331–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-015-0999-5
Brown, D. (2017, October 10). Parametric timber connections for Revit - Dylan Brown Designs. Dylan Brown
Designs. https://dylanbrowndesigns.com/resources/parametric-timber-connections-for-revit/
BuildInWood. (2020). Which timber building system should I use? Building systems overview. Retrieved from: https://design-guide.build-in-wood.eu/building-systems-overview/
Craig, J., & Hammond, G. (2019). Embodied Carbon – The ICE Database (Version 3.0). https://circularecology.com/embodied-carbon-footprint-database.html
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Domenech, T. (2014, July 25). Explainer: What is a circular economy? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-circular-economy-29666
Duffield Timber. (2021, October 21). Hardwood vs. softwood: What are the differences? https://duffieldtimber.com/the-workbench/timber-trends/hardwood-vs-softwood-what-are-the-differences#:~:text=Hardwoods%20derive%20from%20 angiosperm%20trees,is%20usually%20denser%20and%20stronger.
Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Global greenhouse gas overview. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-overview#:~:text=However%2C%20changes%20in%20land%20use,total%20global%20greenhouse% 20gas%20emissions
Evison, D. C., Kremer, P. D., & Guiver, J. (2018). Mass timber construction in Australia and New Zealand - Status, and economic and environmental influences on adoption. Wood and Fiber Science, 50, 128–138. https://doi.org/10.22382/wfs-2018-046
Falk, A. (2013, July 24–26). Cross-laminated timber: Driving forces and innovation [Paper presentation]. 2nd International Conference on Structures and Architecture, Portugal. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265054157_Cross-laminated_timber_driving_forces_and_innovation
Foster, R. M., & Reynolds, T. P. S. (2018). Lightweighting with timber: An opportunity for more sustainable urban densification. Journal of Architectural Engineering, 24(1), 02518001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AE.1943-5568.0000301
Ghodsian, N. (2024, February 19). Sustainable construction technology; Ultimate guide in 2024. https://neuroject.com/sustainable-construction-technology/
Gibbons, O. P., Orr, J. J., Archer-Jones, C., Arnold, W., & Green, D. (2022). How to calculate embodied carbon (2nd ed.). The Institution of Structural Engineers. https://www.istructe.org/sitefiles/handlers/DownloadFile.ashx?productId=9767
HM Treasury. (2013, November). Infrastructure Carbon Review. https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PU1593-Infrastructure-Carbon-Review-FINAL.pdf
International Organization for Standardization. (2006). Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Principles and framework (ISO 14040:2006).
Jelec, M., Varevac, D., & Rajcic, V. (2018). Cross-laminated timber (CLT) - A state of the art report. Journal of the Croatian Association of Civil Engineers, 70(2), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.14256/jce.2071.2017
Lehmann, S. (2013). Low carbon construction systems using prefabricated engineered solid wood panels for urban infill to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable Cities and Society, 6, 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2012.08.004
Mallo, M. F. L., & Espinoza, O. (2014). Outlook for cross-laminated timber in the United States. BioResources, 9(4), 7427–7443. https://doi.org/10.15376/biores.9.4.7427-7443
Muñoz-Pérez, S. P., Lozano-Sánchez, J. J., Ramírez-Silva, D. M., Vallejos-Medianero, J. E., & Malpartida-Iturregui, J. De D. (2024). Use and effect of fly ash in concrete: A literature review. Revista Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Antioquia, 111, 105-118. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.redin.20230927
Nayak, D. K., Abhilash, P. P., Singh, R., Kumar, R., & Kumar, V. (2022). Fly ash for sustainable construction: A review of fly ash concrete and its beneficial use case studies. Cleaner Materials, 6, 100143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clema.2022.100143
Ness, D. (2020). Growth in floor area: The blind spot in cutting carbon. Emerald Open Research 2020, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.35241/emeraldopenres.13420.3
Ramage, M. H., Burridge, H., Busse-Wicher, M., Fereday, G., Reynolds, T., Shah, D. U., Wu, G., Yu, L., Fleming, P., Densley-Tingley, D., Allwood, J., Dupree, P., Linden, P. F., & Scherman, O. (2017). The wood from the trees: The use of timber in construction. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 68, 333–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.107
Röck, M., Saade, M. R. M., Balouktsi, M., Rasmussen, F. N., Birgisdottir, H., Frischknecht, R., Habert, G., Lützkendorf, T., & Passer, A. (2020). Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation. Applied Energy, 258, 114107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114107
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. (2017). Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment. https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/standards/whole_life_carbon_assessment_for_the_built_environment_1st_edition_rics.pdf
Schmidt, M., Crawford, R. H., & Warren-Myers, G. (2020). Quantifying Australia’s life cycle greenhouse gas emissions for new homes. Energy and Buildings, 224, 110287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110287
Simonen, K., Rodriguez, B. X., & De Wolf, C. (2017). Benchmarking the embodied carbon of buildings. Technology|Architecture + Design, 1(2), 208–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/24751448.2017.1354623
Stora Enso. (2018). Green Office Enjoy Paris, France. https://references.buildingsolutions.storaenso.com/en/projects/office/ france/green-office-enjoy
Veka. (2023, March 9). Double glazed windows vs laminated glass – Which to choose? https://vekauk.com/insight-hub/double-glazed-windows-vs-laminated-glass-which-to-choose/
World Green Building Council. (2019). Bringing embodied carbon upfront. https://worldgbc.org/article/bringing-embodied-carbon-upfront/
United Nations Environment Programme. (2021). 2021 global status report for buildings and construction: Towards a zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/2021-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction
United Nations Environment Programme. (2023). Building materials and the climate: Constructing a new future. Nairobi. https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/43293
United Nations Environment Programme. (2024). Beyond foundations: Mainstreaming sustainable solutions to cut emissions from the buildings sector. https://doi.org/10.59117/20.500.11822/45095
UN-Habitat. (n.d.). Green building materials fact sheet: Timber. https://unhabitat.org/green-building-materials-fact-sheet-timber#:~:text=Of%20the%20conventional%20building%20materials%2C%20sustainably%20harvested%20timber,of%20greenhouse%20gases%20of%20any%20conventional%20building%20material
Younis, A., & Dodoo, A. (2022). Cross-laminated timber for building construction: A life-cycle-assessment overview. Journal of Building Engineering, 52, 104482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104482
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Jolin Kaman, Eunike Kristi Julistiono

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions, with the work simultaneously licensed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) that allows for unlimited use, distribution, and content reproduction on all media as long as the original author and source are properly acknowledged and cited.







