Plastic pollution and climate change are serious and interconnected threats to public and planetary health, as well as major drivers of global social injustice. Prolific use of plastics in the construction industry is likely a key contributor, resulting in burgeoning efforts to promote the recycling or downcycling of used plastics.

This report aims to promote a sustainable development approach to meet the immense needs in terms of construction in Africa, based on a rational and sustainable use of local materials. To this end, it presents the advantages, challenges and conditions of use of these materials. It presents examples of technical solutions illustrated by a panorama of the potential resources of the territories (bio and geo-sourced). It provides elements of analysis of the impact of local "short circuit" channels and elements of methodology.

Building construction materials represent 11% of global carbon emissions and 28% of the annual buildings related CO2 emissions, and yet, the demand for construction materials continues to grow, especially in the rapidly urbanizing Global South. Biomaterials offer a key opportunity for decarbonizing the buildings and construction sector, through transitioning from current linear, extractive, and toxic construction practices towards circular, bio-based, renewable materials and construction methods for a sustainable future.

In Senegal, the construction sector is booming. Today, concrete is used widely in construction sites but although it is produced locally and inexpensively, it is highly polluting. However, architects such as Worofila Architecture want to build differently, inspired by the raw earth houses of yesteryear and bringing local know-how back to life. These methods can greatly reduce the impacts of concrete building, whilst producing attractive buildings with excellent thermal performance.

ResponsibleSteel™ is the steel industry’s first global multi-stakeholder standard and certification initiative. As a not-forprofit multi-stakeholder organisation, it has been founded to bring together business, civil society and downstream users of steel, to provide a global standard and certification initiative for steel. Standard development seeks to build consensus on what sustainability looks like for steel – including the impacts of mining, steel production, the scrap metal supply chain, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, workers’ rights, communities and biodiversity.

The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) is a global non-profit standards setting and certification organisation. ASI works together with producers, users and stakeholders in the aluminium value chain to collaboratively foster responsible production, sourcing and stewardship of aluminium.

mindful MATERIALS (mM) is a non-profit leading the global definition of what is a sustainable building product-aggregating centralised data around the Common Materials Framework through an ecosystem of technology tools and systems. 

In the mindful MATERIALS Portal, you can search for over 300,000+ building products by 5 impact categories.