We all know about man-made climate change, with its impacts like forest fires, flooding, heatwaves and extreme weather.
Then there’s pollution of the air, water and land, the loss of natural habitats and the extinction of wildlife, and a host of other environmental problems.
What all these crises have in common, is that they result from the unstoppable growth of our global economy, based on fossil fuels.
Simply put, human beings are now using more than ever before of nearly everything. And despite occasional setbacks, consumption just keeps on growing.
But you can’t have endless growth on a finite planet, and now we are starting to see what happens when we come up against the limits to growth.
Unless we make a conscious choice to shift to a sustainable economy, sooner rather than later, then we face uncontrollable collapse.
Among the various sectors of the economy, buildings and construction account for a giant share—between 35 and 40%—of energy and emissions.
One building material in particular is a big challenge, because it’s far more widely used than any other: namely, concrete.
Globally, we use 32 billion tonnes of concrete every year. That’s a third of everything we make on Earth!
And its active component, cement, on its own, is responsible for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
There’s no question, then, that the building industry needs to change radically. The question is how?
In this series of blog posts, we’ll be exploring ways of building that are more environmentally sustainable, while also creating healthy and beautiful buildings for people to live and work in. For example:
- Building with low-impact natural materials, like earth, wood, and straw, as well as recycled materials;
- Using passive design strategies that work with the sun and wind to heat, cool, and ventilate buildings with minimal need for fossil fuels;
- Using ecological methods to treat wastewater.