Avoid waste, build (with) less and improve circularity
(2023) Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future. — ISBN: [978-92-807-4064-6], 17-25, published
Files
Building_materials_climate1.pdf
Open Access - Adobe PDF
- 14.67 MB
Details
- Authors
- et. al.
- Abstract
- The built environment sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, responsible for at least 37 per cent of the global emissions. Yet it has received only a small fraction of climate-focused development funding, compared to other sectors. Until now, most of the progress in the sector has been made on reducing the “operational carbon” of a building – the emissions created from heating, cooling and lighting, which are projected to decrease from 75 per cent to 50 per cent of the sector in the next few decades. However, solutions for reducing the “embodied” carbon emissions from the design, production and deployment of building materials such as cement, steel, and aluminium have lagged far behind. The reasons for this are complex and many actors are involved. Therefore, the incentives for decarbonisation need to simultaneously enable decision makers, from producers to consumers across the global material supply chains, in both informal and formal building sectors. This report highlights the urgent need to develop new models for cooperation on the decarbonisation of building materials, if the world is to reach its goals for net zero emissions from the built environment sector by the mid-century. The report focuses on three urgent pathways that must be facilitated by supporting stakeholders across the lifecycle of the built environment sector in order to decarbonise: AVOID the extraction and production of raw materials by galvanising a circular economy, which requires building with less materials through better data-driven design, while reusing buildings and recycled materials wherever feasible. SHIFT to regenerative material practices wherever possible by using ethically produced low carbon earth- and bio-based building materials (such as sustainably sourced bricks, timber, bamboo, agricultural and forest detritus) whenever possible. IMPROVE methods to radically decarbonise conventional materials such as concrete, steel and aluminium, and only use these non-renewable, carbon-intensive, extractive materials when absolutely necessary.
- Affiliations
Citations
et al. (2023). Avoid waste, build (with) less and improve circularity. In Dyson A., Keena N., Lokko M., Reck B., Ciardullo C. (ed.), Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future. (pp. 17-25). United Nations Environment Programme. https://doi.org/10.59117/20.500.11822/43293