š Earthlings, pumpkins donāt belong in plastic trash bags or landfills! Why? Pumpkins that end up in the landfill donāt breakdown properly. The lack of oxygen in landfills means that organic matter like pumpkins will end up producing methane.
ā Try this
Eat the seeds after cleaning and roasting them
Cook the pieces of pumpkin you carve out for meals
Use uncarved pumpkins for cooking and decoration
Feed leftover pumpkin to chickens (if you have them)
Compost your pumpkin
Make a bird feeder from your pumpkin
Bury your pumpkin in your garden for nutrients
Check if local farms or zoos accept pumpkin donations
āļø Please donāt
Eat pumpkins that have been carved and left outside with a candle
Leave pumpkins in woodland or other local green spaces
Leave pumpkins in the street or garden until they rot
Feed rotting or moldy pumpkins to animals
š Remember
Uncarved pumpkins are safe to eat if stored properly
Carved pumpkins left outside are no longer safe for consumption
Dispose of pumpkins properly as soon as they start to rot
šØ Illustration/Design by @moniquezarbaf for @futureearth
Sustainable construction is moving from exemplar projects to market-wide system design, with clean steel emerging as a critical test for whole life carbon policy. A new study suggests the global shift to low-carbon steel could be achieved without raising consumer costs through a revenue-neutral policy model, strengthening the case for low embodied carbon materials in mainstream procurement.
For contractors, developers and public clients, the issue is no longer whether green building materials can perform, but how governments can de-risk low carbon construction materials, reduce the carbon footprint of construction and support net zero whole life carbon targets without shielding high-emission incumbents.
The UK retrofit agenda is becoming central to environmental sustainability in construction. The National Retrofit Hubās call for a stronger framework comes as electricity and gas prices begin to decouple, improving the life cycle cost case for heat pumps, energy-efficient buildings and electrified homes.
Retrofit policy now needs consistent standards, skilled delivery capacity and consumer protection, backed by whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment and better evidence on building lifecycle performance. Public support for requiring data centres to share waste heat with nearby homes signals a shift in sustainable urban development, treating rejected heat as green infrastructure rather than waste.
Climate adaptation is also reshaping sustainable building practices. GRAHAMās appointment to deliver the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme highlights rising investment in resilience, while reports of roads melting in eastern England expose the environmental impact of construction decisions based on historic weather assumptions.
The built environment is being asked to cut embodied carbon in materials while improving durability against heat, flooding and infrastructure stress. The strongest response will combine sustainable building design, low carbon design, circular economy in construction, sustainable material specification, environmental product declarations (EPDs) and end-of-life reuse in construction. BREEAM, BREEAM v7 and other performance frameworks are likely to play a growing role as clients demand net zero carbon buildings, resource efficiency in construction and credible carbon footprint reduction across the full asset lifecycle.
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