Mitigation of CO2 emissions in Brazil at negative net costs by reliability-based calibration of partial safety factors

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the built environment is essential to address the climate crisis. In Brazil, significant emission reductions may be achieved through revision of reinforced concrete design safety factors, which were defined empirically in the 1970s. This paper shows that reducing the dead load factor from 1.4 to 1.3 and increasing the live load factor from 1.4 to 1.5 can reduce GHG emissions by approximately 7% while improving structural safety. This study is exploratory and its estimate is based on the analysis of a single ten story regular building, composed of slabs, beams and columns; therefore, the findings should be verified for other structural configurations. Nevertheless, the proposed partial safety factor revision results in net cost-negative GHG emission savings due to reduced material consumption and is immediately applicable and scalable throughout Brazil, representing a potential strategy for reducing GHG emissions.