As California pushes toward a clean energy future, the city of San José has emerged as a leader in building electrification, offering valuable lessons for other cities nationwide. With residential buildings representing the largest source of natural gas use in the city, San José’s initiatives aim to reshape how these buildings are powered while prioritizing community needs, equity, and affordable housing. In 2022, ULI partnered with San Jose on an Advisory Services Panel (ASP) to inform this policy direction for multifamily buildings of all types. The aim of the ASP was to support the city in enabling property owners to step up their electrification retrofit efforts, encourage the adoption of on-site solar and batteries, and move the market forward.
Extreme heat risk is reshaping Britain’s built environment. With 83% of UK cities highly vulnerable to overheating, passive cooling, high‑albedo surfaces, external shading, green infrastructure and urban greening are shifting from optional features to regulatory expectations. Project briefs are pivoting to sustainable building design and eco‑design for buildings that cut operational energy while improving building lifecycle performance. Overheating strategies should be evidenced through whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment and life cycle thinking in construction to deliver net zero whole life carbon outcomes aligned with BREEAM and BREEAM v7 credits.
Supply chains are moving to circular economy in construction at scale. Heidelberg Materials’ new 250,000‑tonne Leeds facility for recycled construction, demolition and excavation waste signals mainstream adoption of end‑of‑life reuse in construction, resource efficiency in construction and circular construction strategies. Secondary aggregates and lower‑carbon mixes strengthen the case for green construction by reducing embodied carbon and the carbon footprint of construction. Specifiers should require environmental product declarations (EPDs) to verify low embodied carbon materials, green building materials and low carbon construction materials, improving whole life carbon performance and life cycle cost control.
Logistics reform is central to decarbonising the built environment. A 40% rail freight target by 2040 could materially cut embodied carbon in materials and enable carbon footprint reduction for heavy products, supporting low-impact construction, low carbon design, net zero carbon and carbon neutral construction pathways for net zero carbon buildings and low carbon building delivery.
Sector capacity is scaling. The North East’s £250m skills programme accelerates retrofit and heat pump deployment, embedding sustainable building practices and sustainable construction. Wales’ plan for a publicly owned energy company supports renewable integration and grid upgrades that unlock energy‑efficient buildings. New boardroom guidance treating nature loss as a material risk elevates environmental sustainability in construction, sustainable design, green building products and sustainable material specification as core governance for a credible circular economy and sustainability transition in UK construction and building.
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