SwitchMed in Tunisia

United Nations 2 years ago

The Tunisian Sustainable Consumption and Production National Action Plan (SCP-NAP) was developed under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development under the EU-funded SwitchMed programme, with advisory services and technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme. The Plan is part of Tunisia’s efforts to achieve Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The SCPNAP (SDG12.1) addresses two priority sectors Tourism and agri-food and was developed in Tunisia through nationally owned multistakeholder processes. Switch to Circular Economy: Under SwitchMed II, a short document "How Tunisia is switching to a Circular Economy" was prepared to present an overview on how the country is implementing activities/policies/programs on SCP and Circular Economy. In this document you will see 10 success stories inspired by the work of SwitchMed in the Tunisian Republic. They show how what began in workshops developed into plans that created a ripple that flowed out around the country. This short publication shows that opportunities for countries from sustainable consumption and production are rich and varied. The Switch to SCP is off and running. SwitchMed is proud to have supported Tunisia in its work to build a society where people and planet thrive and prosper together Tunisia has already developed integrated plans and a regulatory framework that have SCP at their core. For some time now, it has been building on these, expanding its waste reduction plan, establishing a circular economy, and further developing its work on sustainable water managements and energy solutions. It is clear that SCP is no longer just something discussed in meeting rooms. Now it is happening on the ground, across business and industry, in cities and regions, reducing pollution, improving the air we breathe, and promoting better use of nature’s gifts through resource-efficient and low-carbon consumption and production practices.
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layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 14 hours ago



Water scarcity is emerging as the decisive constraint for sustainable construction, displacing carbon as the primary performance metric. The UN’s warning of “water bankruptcy” signals a structural change in sustainable building design, compelling architects and developers to integrate hydrology into whole life carbon assessment, life cycle cost analysis, and lifecycle assessment frameworks. In the US Mountain West, developers are aligning growth strategies with landscape and water systems, embedding eco-design for buildings into procurement criteria. This design shift links embodied carbon and water resilience, advancing environmental sustainability in construction through locally grounded strategies.

In India, landslide-hit townships demonstrate the critical link between ecological restoration and carbon footprint reduction. Rebuilding without integrating low carbon design or sustainable material specification perpetuates the environmental impact of construction. Robust life cycle thinking in construction, balance between embodied carbon in materials and renewable building materials, and circular economy in construction models are now essential to mitigate repeated loss.

Corporates are repositioning net zero carbon buildings as standard infrastructure, not demonstration projects. The Redmond tech campus redevelopment applies sustainable building practices across the portfolio, leveraging low carbon construction materials, resource efficiency in construction, and energy-efficient buildings to deliver measurable reductions in whole life carbon. Residential projects adopting standardised, industrialised manufacturing reflect mature sustainable urban development models that combine social value with building lifecycle performance.

Fragmented policy frameworks remain a major barrier to decarbonising the built environment. Divergent approaches to electrified buildings and green construction incentives distort investment flows, inflating costs and reducing certainty for carbon neutral construction. Cities attempting to achieve net zero whole life carbon targets while ensuring equity highlight the socio-economic dimension of environmental sustainability in construction.

The strategic blueprint for the sector centres on integrating water budgets, hazard mapping, and circular construction strategies with carbon planning. Clean power agreements must underpin low carbon building operations, while standardised housing typologies informed by BREEAM v7 and environmental product declarations (EPDs) will align with whole life carbon metrics. Embedding resilience through context-driven, eco-friendly construction fosters green infrastructure and long-term sustainability in the built environment.

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