A Proposed Methodology for Designing Green Walls to Reduction Carbon Footprint in Residential Buildings in Cairo (Case Study: Dar Misr Buildings)

Abstract

In hot climates, green walls are a recommended sustainable environmental solution for residential buildings. They effectively protect buildings from direct sunlight, enhancing thermal performance. Additionally, plants help produce oxygen through photosynthesis and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which in turn mitigates the bad impacts of global warming, the primary driver of climate change. This research addresses the problem of increased carbon dioxide emissions in residential buildings due to the inefficient building envelope. The main aim is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by applying green walls to the building envelope of the middle-income housing units under study. This study utilizes the Design Builder v7.0 simulation to assess the performance of residential buildings, focusing on a case study of middle-income housing units in Greater Cairo. The results showed that adopting green walls in middle-income housing units in Greater Cairo resulted in a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by more than 16 % compared to the baseline.