Sustainable built environment: transition towards a net zero carbon built environment

The potential consequences of the climate crisis and its already-occurring effects are prompting an intensive examination of the necessity for reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. All scientific organisations, nearly all governing bodies and non-governmental organisations, are now raising the alarm. There is a common agreement that the Earth System is approaching a planetary threshold that could lock in a continuing rapid pathway toward much hotter conditions. The particular threshold remains uncertain, but falls within the range of the Paris Accord temperature targets. The Paris Accord (and IPCC Reports¹ [Allen et al. 2018]) indicate that rapid reductions over the next 10–30 years are necessary. An immediacy and sense of urgency to act on significant reductions in GHGs is now widely acknowledged. In the meantime, urbanisation is expected to add 2.5 billion people to the global urban population by 2050. Together with the pressure to overcome the already sizable housing deficit and lack of decent built environment, it is anticipated that this population growth will cause a surge in demand for additional buildings and also construction products. The GHG emissions related to this development will add to the already exceeding emissions due to other human activities. …