Construction is the cause of over 23% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. And the production of construction is on the rise. 1 By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion individuals are predicted to reside in urban regions. 2 Accommodating these people requires building infrastructure and buildings similar to a city in the size of Milan (1.5 million residents) every week up to 2050. According to specific estimates, only one billion homes will be required in 2025. 3 In the same period, vast buildings are scheduled to be renovated or replaced to meet the latest demands and requirements. With clean construction, cities will be able to satisfy the growing demand for modern and new buildings in a safe and sustainable manner and maximize the advantages for the inhabitants.
The construction industry is a significant and nefarious source of city-wide emissions.
Embodied emissions comprise 20% to 50% of a typical building’s entire-life emissions, and the majority happen before anyone sets food inside the building. 4 They comprise emissions from extraction of materials production, transportation as well as maintenance, construction, and at the end of their lives. Most building materials used in urban areas (and the emissions they generate) originate from outside the city’s boundaries, meaning they are only sometimes considered.
Common building materials, like steel and concrete, are rich in carbon. The manufacturing of cement, the primary element in the construction of concrete, is the cause of 8 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions.5 Additionally, it consumes vast quantities of water along with gravel and sand, the mining of which damages ecosystems.6 If cement manufacturing were the sole source of carbon emissions for a nation that was a country, it would be the third largest emitter.7
The current demolition and construction practices waste precious resources.
The construction industry in the world consumes more than a third of the resources extracted each year. 8 Processing and extraction have significant environmental impacts, as in mining and refining ore.
Infrastructure and buildings are usually constructed with more significant quantities of materials than they need; many steel-framed buildings in the United Kingdom, for instance, are built structurally with twice the amount of steel required. 9
When buildings are demolished, most of their materials go to landfill, wasting these resources and creating environmental issues. Deconstructing buildings rather than destroying them, the materials can be reused and repurposed to reduce waste, in turn, the need for new materials for construction projects.
What is clean construction?
Clean construction is a method to improve resource use efficiency and reduce building industry emissions. The “construction hierarchy” sets out the most (top-down) environmentally friendly clean construction strategies:
Clean construction provides cleaner air, more jobs, and much more.
Improved Air quality. The air (and noise) pollution emitted by diesel-fueled construction equipment and vehicles can affect the well-being and health of those working on the site and their neighbors and contribute to the city’s pollution. Construction sites, for instance, create 7.5 percent of NO x emissions and 14 percent in pollution from PM 2.5, and 8 percent at 10 PM 10 emissions for London. 10 Demolition can also produce toxic dust that travels across blocks, especially when structures contain:
- Lead-based paint.
- Concealed asbestos.
- Mercury-rich equipment (prevalent in older construction sites).
- Other harmful substances.
Learn more about the advantages of enhancing air quality. The reasons why the air you breathe is crucial to the health of your city and its prosperity.
Speedier as well as less disruptive. Prefabricated components significantly reduce the amount of time spent on the construction site and use less equipment to build. The lighter materials, like timber, require fewer transportation trips. In addition, deconstruction can help reduce the amount of noise pollution, air pollution, and congestion in construction areas.
Deconstructing and refurbishing structures are more labor-intensive than new construction and demolition, providing more employment. The estimates suggest that between six and eight new jobs will be generated by demolition and downstream industries for every one job created through the traditional demolition process. 11 Understanding this, Baltimore, for instance, has affixed capital to its deconstruction industry to create jobs that are inclusive and good from the city’s vast inventory of vacant, abandoned structures – find out the full story on this site.
Preservation of valuable and historical material. Retrofitting offers the most effective method to preserve communities’ identity and social structure as upgrades are needed to meet modern requirements and standards. Deconstruction of old buildings helps keep historical materials like old-growth lumber and culturally significant fixtures. Deconstruction is also a way to restore communities following disaster events or during a retreat managed in areas that face rising sea levels or flooding.