Abstract

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates that by 2050 the world’s population will have increased by over 2.1 billion people. Providing housing and infrastructure for them would essentially require building an amount equivalent to what currently exists. It is simply not possible to build in the future the way we do today. Though the field as well as the broader public have been slow to take notice of the building industry’s contribution to the environmental crisis, it is now finally receiving increased attention. Bill and Melinda Gates even emphasised the problem succinctly in their Foundation’s 2019 Annual Letter, “...the world’s building stock is expected to double by 2060—the equivalent of adding another New York City monthly between now and then. That’s a lot of cement and steel. We need to find a way to make it all without worsening climate change.” To appropriately confront the urgency of the environmental crisis, the building industry faces three grand challenges: 1) reducing pollution, specifically carbon dioxide emissions; 2) slowing the depletion of natural resources; and 3) minimising waste production.