Carbon footprint and eco-efficiency of China's regional construction industry: A life cycle perspective

The construction industry plays an important role in China's industrialization and urbanization process, which has become a major contributor to carbon emission in China. We innovatively use carbon footprint as an indicator of undesirable output in evaluating the construction industry since it captures both direct and indirect carbon emission. Then we conduct a comprehensive analysis of eco-efficiency of this industry under the framework of natural disposability and managerial disposability with a new radial DEA model on considering both desirable and undesirable outputs. We have several important findings. First, non-metallic mineral products, metal smelting and calendering, electricity and heat production, and supply are major drives from the perspective of the industrial chain. And the carbon footprint is mainly caused by capital formation from the final demand perspective. Second, most regions have a relatively lower eco-efficiency due to weak awareness of environmental protection, and there is a large emission reduction potential by eco-technology innovation. Finally, developed regions prefer to adopt the strategy of increasing investment in eco-technology innovation. The other regions generally adopted the strategy of reducing all inputs. The government should strengthen environment regulation and encourage the developing regions to increase investment in eco-technology innovation.