Sustainable design of commercial buildings through embodied energy optimization

Nowadays, buildings industry consumes large amounts of energy. The current procedures, which have been used for years, are really lack to be improved, and very important insurances and inventions are required to reduce the energy consumption. In this study, a life cycle energy (LCEA) and carbon dioxide releases ( LCCO2A ) analysis of two commercial buildings has been performed. The study involves the literature review, the records used for such an overall procedure, and approach and offers an application of the method that studies two real commercial buildings built in Gaziantep, Turkey. The intended pattern concentrated on building construction, operating and destruction stages in order to evaluate gross energy consumption and carbon dioxide throughout 50-year lifetime. Energy efficiency and emissions factors are expressed for the buildings per square meter base. The results expressed that the operating stage is prevailing in both commercial buildings and share in86- 90% of the primary energy necessities and 77–86% of CO 2 releases, respectively. The embodied energy (EE) of the buildings calculated for 10–14% of the total life- cycle energy consumption.