Jointly published with the Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP (CYMG), this report provides an updated analysis of global waste generation and management since 2018. The original Global Waste Management Outlook is a response to UNEP Resolutions 2/7 and 4/7, offering an updated assessment of global waste management. The report provides data analysis, explores different waste management scenarios, and evaluates their impacts on society, the environment, and the economy. It offers guidance for stakeholders, including multinational development banks, national governments, municipalities, the private sector, and citizens, with a particular focus on young people. Waste pollution poses significant risks to infants, children, and youth, affecting their health due to their developing bodies and vulnerable immune systems. Contamination from landfills and hazardous waste, along with inadequate waste management, increases the risk of respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal disorders, and developmental delays. Engaging youth in combating waste pollution is crucial, as they will face the long-term consequences of today’s waste management practices. The Youth Summary of the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 aims to equip young people with the knowledge and tools needed to address these challenges. By empowering youth, we can harness their energy, creativity, and commitment to drive transformative change and secure a healthier, more sustainable future for all. Further Resources: Global Waste Management Outlook 2024
Another record-breaking UK summer has turned climate resilience into a design baseline. Heat- and drought-ready specifications are now essential for sustainable building design, as hosepipe bans and failing assets expose systemic risk. Rapid permafrost degradation, with active layers thickening by more than 36 cm a year in mountain regions, signals foundation and infrastructure vulnerabilities across high latitudes. Design teams are prioritising whole life carbon, lifecycle assessment, life cycle thinking in construction and life cycle cost to balance resilience with net zero whole life carbon goals, delivering energy-efficient buildings, robust green infrastructure and low carbon design.
Regulation is tightening. The UK’s golden thread obligations now cover every trade on higher‑risk projects, demanding verifiable, location‑specific records of installations. Compliance advantages firms that can evidence sustainable material specification, environmental product declarations (EPDs), green building products and embodied carbon in materials, cutting the carbon footprint of construction. Clients are aligning with BREEAM and breeam v7, using whole life carbon assessment to prove carbon footprint reduction and the environmental impact of construction while decarbonising the built environment toward carbon neutral construction and net zero carbon targets. This embeds environmental sustainability in construction and raises expectations for sustainable building practices and sustainable design.
Delivery models are shifting from demolition to reuse. The 75 London Wall retrofit foregrounds circular economy in construction, end-of-life reuse in construction and circular construction strategies that minimise embodied carbon and whole life carbon while improving building lifecycle performance. In the Benelux, an organised push for modular construction signals industrialised, lower‑waste methods, greater resource efficiency in construction and broader uptake of low embodied carbon materials, low carbon construction materials, renewable building materials and green building materials to achieve low carbon building outcomes. Temporary power is decarbonising as major events switch to renewable, green energy, reinforcing eco-design for buildings, eco‑friendly construction and green construction across sites targeting net zero carbon buildings, sustainable construction, sustainable architecture, sustainable urban development and the wider circular economy. Sustainability is now specification, not slogan.
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