Until recently, little attention has been paid to the carbon impacts of the construction and refurbishing of buildings, with the majority of focus on their operational performance. Yet our buildings are constructed using materials, components, and products. These materials have to be extracted from the ground or grown, transported to a facility for processing, transported again to be transformed into a product, and finally transported to a construction site.

Channel Projects, an architecture studio, sought to develop a solution that would encourage steel reuse in the construction industry, in order to tackle the material’s significant contribution to global carbon emissions.

With support from ReLondon’s business transformation team and the Mayor of London’s Green New Deal fund, Channel Projects was able to further develop its “ReFrame” industrial building concept and business model.

The UK Government’s recent climate change legislation and the ambitious carbon targets from funders and end users, are encouraging developers and their design teams to look at exactly where carbon is contained within construction projects and where it can be reduced.  

There are several facets of aluminum when it comes to sustainability. While it helps to save fuel due to its low density, producing it from ores is very energy-intensive. Recycling it shifts the balance towards higher sustainability, because the energy needed to melt aluminum from scrap is only about 5% of that consumed in ore reduction. The amount of aluminum available for recycling is estimated to double by 2050.

A dynamic material flow model was developed to simulate the evolution of global aluminum stocks in geological reserve and anthropogenic reservoir from 1900 to 2010 on a country level. The contemporary global aluminum stock in use (0.6 Gt or 90 kg/capita) has reached about 10% of that in known bauxite reserves and represents an embodied energy amount that is equivalent to three-quarters of the present global annual electricity consumption.

Aluminium - Analysis and key findings. A report by the International Energy Agency.

Glass is a material inextricably linked with human civilization. It is also the product of an energy intensive industry. About 75% to 85% of the total energy requirements to produce glass occur when the raw materials are heated in a furnace to more than 1500 °C. During this process, large volumes of emissions arise. The container and flat glass industries, which combined account for 80% of total glass production, emit over 60 million tonne of CO2 per year.

Digital library of building materials sustainability, and 'passports'. Madaster is the online registry for materials and products. In Madaster, data are recorded on all materials and products that are incorporated in a real estate or infrastructure object, such as buildings and bridges.  Registering every component provides insight, for example, into the degree to which an object can be dismantled, embodied carbon, or the toxicity of the materials and products used. It also enables determining whether materials and products can be reused after disassemblage.

EDGE (“Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies”) is a free software, a green building standard, and an international green building certification system, enabling users to design and certify resource-efficient and zero carbon buildings. 

The Sustainable Construction Leaders (SCL) peer network, available through Building Green and based in North America, is a community with regional ties that shares best practices, advocates for, and inspires change in a way that is collaborative, non-competitive, trusting, positive, and results-oriented.  It aims to leverage the construction industry to combat climate change and create healthy environments.