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The construction industry is known to be a major contributor to environmental pressures due to its high energy consumption and carbon dioxide generation. The growing amount of carbon dioxide emissions over buildings' life cycles has prompted academics and professionals to initiate various studies relating to this problem. Researchers have been exploring carbon dioxide reduction methods for each phase of the building life cycle - from planning and design, materials production, materials distribution and construction process, maintenance and renovation, deconstruction and disposal, to the material reuse and recycle phase. This paper aims to present the state of the art in carbon dioxide reduction studies relating to the construction industry. Studies of carbon dioxide reduction throughout the building life cycle are reviewed and discussed, including those relating to green building design, innovative low carbon dioxide materials, green construction methods, energy efficiency schemes, life cycle energy analysis, construction waste management, reuse and recycling of materials and the cradle-to-cradle concept. The review provides building practitioners and researchers with a better understanding of carbon dioxide reduction potential and approaches worldwide. Opportunities for carbon dioxide reduction can thereby be maximised over the building life cycle by creating environmentally benign designs and using low carbon dioxide materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of achieving a sustainable society is partly dependent on providing an infrastructure to minimise resource flows and associated environmental damage in ways that enhance a community's aspirations and needs. This implies that civil engineers need to understand the impact of population growth and its changing aspirations, developing technology and means to limit environmental impact in order to maintain, enhance or create interdependent infrastructure systems that are multifunctional and operate within complex qualitative and quantitative systems. Developing an understanding of existing resource networks and the interventions and initiatives needed to create a sustainable future leads to a framework that permits political and business decisions to be taken. Such an understanding is essential for appropriate civil engineering solutions for the underlying economic infrastructure - an infrastructure that is now developed through the UK's national infrastructure plan. This paper reviews the interventions, initiatives and barriers that affect the transformation of the food network, as a case study, to a sustainable network. This is to highlight the need for the resource flows to be factored into the national infrastructure plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]