Evaluation of the influence of design factors on the CO₂ emissions and costs of reinforced concrete columns

Reinforced concrete (RC) is one of the structural materials that produce environmental pollution. The objective of this study is to present design guidelines for reducing CO₂ emissions or costs associated with structural materials in the structural design phase of RC columns. After identifying the cross-sections of RC columns with the minimum CO₂ emissions or costs while satisfying the structural design conditions via a parametric study, the influence of the design factors (i.e., concrete strength, steel reinforcement strength, cross-section size, and amount of steel reinforcement) on the CO₂ emissions and costs of RC columns are investigated. The results confirm that increasing the strength and amount of steel reinforcements is efficient for sustainable design, whereas increasing the strength of the structural materials and the amount of concrete is efficient for economical structural design.