Parking infrastructure in building carbon footprint assessment : impact of methodological approaches

Božiček, David (author), Jeglič, Lana (author), Pajek, Luka (author), Potočnik, Jaka (author), Košir, Mitja (author)

Parking infrastructure is an important yet often inconsistently treated element in whole-life carbon footprint assessments and broader building sustainability evaluation. With the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) introducing mandatory global warming potential (GWP) reporting, the influence of methodological choices on GWP re sults requires a clearer understanding. This study examines six multi-apartment residential (MAR) projects featuring four distinct parking typologies to quantify how parking infras tructure affects calculated GWP outcomes. Using EN 15804-compliant life cycle assessment (LCA) data, we evaluate four methodological approaches for including parking infrastruc ture in GWP calculations and the approach mandated by the delegated act supplementing the EPBD (DA-EPBD). The results show that parking infrastructure can account for up to 39% of embodied and up to 25% of whole life cycle emissions. Methodological approaches significantly influenced the GWP results, leading to differences of up to 32% in sample median values. An inconsistency in the DA-EPBD approach is identified, resulting in better GWPperformance for projects including large-area attached parking infrastructure, while leading to higher GWP values for projects with detached parking. The findings highlight the sensitivity of GWP outcomes to methodological assumptions regarding parking infras tructure and underscore the need for clear national GWP calculation rules when integrating DA-EPBDrequirements.

• Language: English
• Keywords: global warming potential, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, life cycle assessment, LCA, EPBD, GWP, multi-apartment buildings, parking infrastructure, sustainable building design, sustainability indicators
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FGG - Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 24 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 18, issue 11, art. 5363
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182997
• UDC: 502.131.1
• ISSN on article: 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su18115363
• COBISS.SI-ID: 279944195
• Publication date in RUL: 01.06.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sustainability
• Shortened title: Sustainability
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2071-1050
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5324897

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: potencial segrevanja ozračja, Direktiva o energetski učinkovitosti stavb, ocenjevanje življenjskega cikla, večstanovanjske stavbe, infrastruktura za parkiranje, trajnostno načrtovanje stavb, indikatorji trajnosti

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: N2-0258
• Name: Študija toplotnih lastnosti in zmanjšanja vseživljenjskega vpliva alternativnih hibridnih eko-nanomaterialov v okolju z nizkim tlakom

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0158
• Name: Gradbene konstrukcije in gradbena fizika