RE:designing Cities

Cities are the foundation of modern life but they have a huge impact on the environment.

The Buildings and Construction Sector alone is responsible for 37% of global emissions. While the scale of this problem is staggering, it also presents a clear opportunity for us to decarbonise the built environment and reimagine the cities we live in as part of an ecosystem.

What will it take to construct a sustainable future? Find out from the insights and innovations below how we can transform our cities to make them healthier for us and less damaging to the biodiversity we depend on.

Turning Cities Into Healthy Ecosystems

Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It's clear that urgent action is needed to decarbonise the sector, but many industry leaders believe we can aim even higher.

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Regenerative Design

"We could have buildings that are generating more energy than they use, capturing every drop of rainwater."

Energy Efficient Buildings

"We need to understand that there is free heat all around us. There is no need to burn fossil fuels to create heat."

Harnessing Smart Technologies

"Let's enable buildings to become like a neural network where all the operating systems talk to each other."

Janine Benyus

Learning from nature's billions of years of research and development

Sara Kulturhus

Setting a new standard for sustainable timber construction in Sweden

Biomason

Revolutionising construction with biotechnology

Nexii

NEXII reduces the environmental footprint of construction through lower carbon emissions, increased thermal efficiency and faster build times.

Continuus Materials

Creating building products like roofboard out of waste destined for landfill, bringing single-use plastic into the circular economy.

Closing the Embodied Carbon Data Gap

This report from the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Sustainable Buildings Task Force addresses embodied carbon in buildings, with a focus on mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems. These components are often overlooked, but they contribute greatly to a building’s emissions.