Many stadiums will be built in China in the next few decades due to increasing public interest in physical exercise and the incentive policies issued by the government under its National Fitness Program. This paper investigates the energy saving and carbon reduction performance of timber stadiums in China in comparison with stadiums constructed using conventional building materials, based on both life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) and life cycle carbon assessment (LCCA). The authors select five representative cities in five climate zones in China as the simulation environment, simulate energy use in the operation phase of stadiums constructed from reinforced concrete (RC) and timber, and compare the RC and timber stadiums in terms of their life cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions. The LCEA results reveal that the energy saving potential afforded by timber stadiums is 11.05%, 12.14%, 8.15%, 4.61% and 4.62% lower than those of RC buildings in “severely cold,” “cold,” “hot summer, cold winter,” “hot summer, warm winter,” and “temperate” regions, respectively. The LCCA results demonstrate that the carbon emissions of timber stadiums are 15.85%, 15.86%, 18.88%, 19.22% and 22.47% lower than those of RC buildings for the regions above, respectively. This demonstrates that in China, timber stadiums have better energy conservation and carbon reduction potential than RC stadiums, based on life cycle assessment. Thus, policy makers are advised to encourage the promotion of timber stadiums in China to achieve the goal of sustainable energy development for public buildings.

The Prefabricated Straw Bale Construction (PSBC) has been proven as one of the most efficient construction methods to achieve low-energy buildings with low environmental impacts. This research presents analysis of the rationale for using straw bale constructions in northern China and a discussion of feasible constructions of PSBC to meet the local building codes following evaluations of potential energy performance of domestic buildings with PSBC in severe cold regions and cold regions in China. The results show that the buildings with PSBC reduce both heating and cooling energy uses, as well as heating intensities across the severe cold and cold regions, compared to the domestic buildings with conventional constructions. The findings of this research will contribute to reducing energy consumption in building industries in China.

The aim of this research is to investigate the energy sustainability of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and straw residential buildings in the Cold and Severe Cold Regions of China. In the study, three building materials, namely reinforced concrete (RC), CLT, and straw bale, are used separately to design the building envelope in reference residential buildings in different climate zones. The energy consumption during the operation phase of these buildings is then simulated using Integrated Environmental Solutions—Virtual Environment software (IES-VE). The results show that both CLT and straw buildings are more efficient than reinforced concrete with a reduction in energy consumption during the operational phase. Overall, the calculated heating energy-saving ratios for CLT buildings in Hailar, Harbin, Urumchi, Lanzhou, and Beijing are 3.04%, 7.39%, 7.43%, 12.69%, and 13.41%, respectively, when compared with RC. The calculated energy-saving ratios for heating in straw buildings in comparison with RC in these cities are 8.04%, 22.09%, 22.17%, 33.02%, and 34.28%, respectively. The results also reveal that a south orientation of the main building facade results in approximately 5% to 7% energy reduction in comparison with east or west orientations, and as the building height increases, energy consumption decreases gradually. Although RC is the most frequently used building material in Cold and Severe Cold regions in China, as bio-based building materials, there is great potential to promote CLT and straw bale construction in view of the energy sustainability features.