SEM-Based Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction Pathway Study during the Materialization Stage of Prefabricated Buildings: Evidence from Shenyang and Guiyang, China

In recent years, in the process of promoting prefabricated buildings, problems such as waste of resources and energy have been present, which have seriously hindered the realization of carbon emission reduction benefits of prefabricated buildings. Especially during the materialization stage of prefabricated buildings which involves the most engineering activities and the most extensive sources of carbon emissions, it is urgent to further meet the low-carbon development of the construction industry. This study takes the 4 substages of design and development, component production, transportation, and installation during the materialization stage as the point of penetration and identifies the carbon reduction impact pathways based on the 3E (Environment-Economy-Energy) system theory in 5 dimensions: government policy, management mode, technology level, economy input, and energy structure. The data are collected through the questionnaire survey, and structural equation modeling (SEM) is utilized to examine the hypothesis and impact dimensions of the study. The results confirm that the management mode has the strongest effects on carbon emission reduction, followed by government policy, economy input, and technology level, and the energy structure has the weakest effects. This study presents the key carbon reduction pathways during the materialization stage of prefabricated buildings and provides recommendations for different participants to optimize policy guidance, strengthen management supervision, accelerate technology research and development, increase economy input, and optimize energy structure, with a view to achieving low-carbon governance capacity, management mode, technology system, capital, and energy utilization, and also enriches the theory in the field of prefabricated buildings carbon emission reduction, which can better achieve low-carbon development of prefabricated buildings.