This article is sponsored by VELUX
The U.S. construction industry has a key role to play in ensuring global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, with the built environment accounting for 40 percent of the world’s global GHG emissions and residential buildings alone being responsible for 20 percent of global emissions. The urgency to take a closer look at the built environment has particularly increased following the U.S.’s return to the Paris Agreement, and in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has brought U.S. energy consumption and emissions into the spotlight.
The complexity of reducing the sector’s emissions is a result of the need to strike a balance between meeting housing demand and prioritizing a sustainable environment. This is further compounded by the need to decarbonize buildings at all stages of the construction lifecycle. One that tackles embodied carbon, operational carbon and end-of-life carbon. The global nature of the industry means any solution will have to be rapidly scalable and will require collaboration across global supply chains.
