Published Paper Details:

The 'Introduction' explains that global warming is the most important science issue of the 21st century, challenging the very structure of our global society. The problem is that global warming is not just a scientific concern, but encompasses economics, sociology, geopolitics, local politics, and individuals' choice of lifestyle. Global warming is caused by the massive increase of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Global warming is considered one of the greatest challenges worldwide. International environmental agreements have been developed in response to climate change since the 1970s. The construction industry is considered to be one of the main contributors to global warming. According to the Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change not only is the construction industry responsible for about 40% of global energy consumption, it is also responsible for 30% of global green house gas emissions per annum. Furthermore, it is common for most countries to construct high-rise buildings and larger-sized facilities, due to the rapid growth of population Considering the materials consumption costs, durability, and the environmental impacts, a more in-depth study is necessary to evaluate the influence of the concrete cover thicknesses over the structure's life cycle. Studies that evaluate the environmental impacts of reinforced concrete slabs are relatively scarce (Paik and Na, 2019). Besides that, there are very few studies investigating the concrete cover thickness as a principal subject, and none thus far evaluate its effect on the structure's life cycle. The cement production and steel are the main contributors to many environmental impacts in structures of conventional concrete (Paik and Na, 2019) and the production of steel and concrete has a higher embodied energy than the other materials as found by Life Cycle Costs and impacts of massive slabs with varying concrete cover systems. In this study, reinforcing bars were the main contributor to lowering the carbon dioxide emissions in the flat plate slab and voided slab systems. The results of this study show that amongst all the three different slab systems, the voided slab system shows the greatest reduction potential. Moreover, replacing the ordinary reinforced concrete slab system by alternative methods would make it possible to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions in building projects.