Cost-benefit analysis as decision support for determining sound classification for new apartment buildings

Paper in proceeding, 2025

The construction industry significantly contributes to the world’s total carbon emissions and strives to reduce its climate impact. One strategy to reduce emissions in new buildings is to minimize the volume of material used in the structural system. However, aside from load-carrying, the structural system has other essential functions, such as providing sufficient sound reduction. The most common strategy for achieving better sound reduction is adding more structural material to floors and walls, which contradicts the aim of minimizing the material volumes to lower climate impact. Therefore, this project applies cost-benefit analysis to the structural system of new residential multi-floor concrete buildings to analyze the societal benefits and costs of choosing different sound classes. The objective is to explore whether buildings with better sound classes can be justified from a societal perspective, notwithstanding the increased climate emissions they may produce. The results show that constructing apartment buildings with better sound classification levels is justified from a societal benefit perspective, even though the choice increases carbon emissions.