**4. Contribution of construction industry to global emissions**

The contribution of various materials of construction to carbon dioxide emissions is furnished in **Figure 2**.

One of the largest industries in developing and developed countries in terms of investment, employment and contribution to GDP is the construction industry. Consequently, the impact of the construction industry on the environment in terms of loss of soil/agricultural land, the loss of forests/wetlands, air/water pollution, etc. is considerable. Contribution of eight major categories to environmental burden varies from 12 to 40%. The details are furnished in **Table 1**.

The embodied carbon in various aspects of construction is furnished below in **Figure 3**.

The construction sector is having negative impacts on the environment in the following manner:


**Figure 1.** *Methodology Adopted.*

#### *Risk Mitigation: Sustainable Management in Construction Industry DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100215*

irrigation water, degradation of water quality, reduction and degradation of habitat of aquatic flora and fauna and decrease in abundance and diversity of aquatic species are some of the adverse impacts of mining. In regions where mining is carried out, water resource are polluted, diverted/disturbed from their natural conditions as a result of mining activity making water unfit for consumption.


#### **Figure 2.**

*Source: www.construct.com/carbon-emisisons-in-construction-materials.*


#### **Table 1.**

*Contribution of major categories of construction to environmental burden.*

Considering the above cited factors, it is imperative that in line overall objective of bringing down the green house gas emissions by 40% from the level of 1990 by 2030, the construction industry has no choice but to adopt innovative measures to bring down its carbon foot print substantially.
