Assessing the Environmental Impact of the Proposed Alturas Mall in Ubay, Bohol Through Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

This study presents a whole-building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a proposed large-scale commercial mall in a tropical emerging-economy context, addressing the limited application of LCA in the Philippine construction sector. Using One Click LCA software, the environmental impacts of the proposed Alturas Mall in Ubay, Bohol, were assessed across selected life-cycle stages. Results indicate that operational energy use (B6) dominates total life-cycle carbon emissions, accounting for 96.82% of total CO₂e, reflecting the fossil-fuel-dependent electricity mix of the Philippines. The calculated embodied carbon was 414.73 kg CO₂e/m², which falls below international benchmark thresholds. This study contributes empirical whole-building LCA evidence for large-scale commercial buildings in tropical emerging economies, a context that remains underrepresented in current literature. Transportation (A4) and selected maintenance stages (B1–B5) were excluded due to data limitations at the design stage, and embodied carbon results should therefore be interpreted as conservative estimates, particularly in archipelagic contexts such as the Philippines. The findings highlight the critical need to prioritize operational energy efficiency alongside material optimization in tropical commercial buildings and support the early integration of LCA into architectural decision-making.