Buildings are everywhere! They are an integral part of what we call homes, schools, medical centres, offices, retail spaces, restaurants, gyms, warehouses, factories and so much more. The spread is huge!

It is no surprise, that the building industry has a significant influence on human society.

While individuals in society exclusively depend upon the building industry to satisfy its housing needs; industries (virtually all sectors) depend on it for economic value creation – largely through tailored workspace, accommodation, plants, and infrastructure.

For an industry as closely tied up to the human society as the building industry is – let’s try and understand how it connects with the ongoing climate crisis. And if at all, it can participate in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But before we do that, we’ll take a moment to get a context of the industry’s size and influence on the global economy. And how it is projected to grow in the coming decades. Here, we go.

The Global Economic Context

The building industry, despite its many internal challenges, has played an important role in the global economy and prosperity.

It is likely to be the case going forward into the decade 2020-2030, as well.

Numerous economic forecasts suggest that the building industry is likely to remain on a path of growth. In fact, it is expected to outpace the growth of the global economy itself and account for 14.7% of global GDP, by 2030.

Among others many reasons, this growth is particularly expected to occur on account of 3 prominent factors - (i) the growing human population, (ii) the increasing migration from rural to urban areas, and (iii) the prosperity of individuals themselves, within the growth trajectory of the global economy, particularly in the emerging countries.

The influence of these factors is confirmed when we look at the largest global construction markets of today.

As I put this piece together in April 2021, the Asia-Pacific region remains the largest global construction market, followed by the Middle East and Africa, where all these factors co-exist. From a longer-term perspective, 8 global construction markets - China, the US, India, Indonesia, the UK, Mexico, Canada, and Nigeria- are likely to account for 70% of all global growth in construction, until 2030.

The Building Industry’s Climate Effect

Let’s get straight to it.

Like all things in the modern industrialized world, the building industry heavily relies on the combustion of fossil fuels at various stages of building life. These stages can include product manufacturing, construction, maintenance, operation, and demolition of a building.

The building industry’s combustion of fossil fuels (direct and indirect) is so significant, that the industry is alone responsible for about 38% of all greenhouse gas emissions that take place across our planet in a year.

Yes, 38% of all greenhouse gas emissions - leading to climate change.

To break it down further, 1. about 10% of this emission comes from the burning of fossil fuels to extract, manufacture and transport building materials and products, 2. while the remaining 28% comes from the burning of fossil fuels to meet building’s energy demand – particularly in the form of electricity.



Clearly, the building industry is a major contributor to the ongoing climate crisis.

Its emission pathway will largely determine the extent of success in our efforts towards a global low-emission-economic-future.

It is this mammoth share of the building industry’s emissions globally, that shape and builds the case for meaningful climate action within the building industry. Actions that are aimed at significantly reducing the emission footprint of the building.

Challenges Ahead

To begin with, the building industry has an enormous challenge on its path to lowering its emission footprint.

The challenge particularly lies in the colossal task of aligning the various stakeholders within the building industry on climate action, as Step One.

Stakeholders include, but are not limited to construction product manufacturers, architects, structural engineers, services engineers, facility managers, and most importantly the investors.

Note, there is also a growing pressure on the building industry from various other economic sectors that depends on it that comes as demands for low-carbon building assets. This is usually seeded in the effort of the other sectors to reduce their emission footprints.

If reducing emission footprint in the global fight against climate change within the industry and for other dependent sectors on the same path wasn’t challenging enough, it is further stretched by the fast-growing demand for new buildings with every passing year. Especially in the fast-developing countries of Asia and Africa. This is despite, the addition of floor spaces globally equivalent to the city of Paris every 5 days!



To sum it up, the building industry will not only have to develop solutions to reduce its emissions to near zero in alignment with global climate action; but do it while continuing to move faster to meet growing demand.

In all fairness, the challenge to the building industry is enormous and will require system-level changes. Business as usual is not much of an option – going ahead.

The Quintessential Future

All things said it is good to acknowledge that the building industry has begun to proactively engage with the challenge.

Numerous debates and dialogues have taken place over the past few years and ‘frameworks/call to action’ such as those for energy-efficient buildings and net-zero carbon buildings have been developed to prevent the devastating impact of a rapidly changing environment.

Leaders in the building industry acknowledge that tried and tested ‘business-as-usual approach’ to constructing and operating buildings will not work, going into the future.

This has encouraged experimenting with new solutions, that concerned with systemic changes within the industry and innovative thinking on manufacturing processes and building design.

The ‘energy efficient' and ‘net-zero’ carbon building frameworks, that have emerged over the past few years are an example of this. They are offering a critical opportunity to address climate change, within the building industry.

However, the speed and scale of this transition are not near sufficient!

Closing

Clearly, the building and construction industry is a crucial component of the Global Climate Action Plan.

With over half of the buildings that will be standing in the year 2050 yet to be built – the building industry stands on a very interesting junction of growth.

And most of us in the industry today, will be witnesses and participants of how the industry's progress beyond this junction to a low emission pathway.

What we build today, will be our emissions legacy!

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Take a moment on these graphs below.

Notice the building industry’s mammoth 35% share in global energy consumption and 38% share in global emission footprint (38%), in 2019. It is these large shares of global energy consumption and emission – that build the case for meaningful climate action in the building industry.



Notice, the building industry has delivered a continuous growth in floor area delivery, each year over the last decade globally. While the industry must continuing on this path to meet growing demands, it faces the challenge of doing so with a diminishing emission trend for meaningful climate action. That has not been the case, over the past decade.