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@NASA climate scientists travel far and wide to study water in all its forms.
Celebrate #EarthDay by sharing a #GlobalSelfie with us – and bonus points if it’s near water!
Image descriptions:
1: A woman kneels down in the snow, wearing snowshoes and a bright orange jacket. She is looking down at a scientific instrument in her hands.
2: A man wearing a black leather jacket and brown shirt takes a selfie in front of a light blue glacier. Between the man and the glacier is a small area of patchy grass. A second person in the background is walking toward the glacier.
3: A woman sits on a wooden boat with her legs stretched out toward the camera. She is smiling and wearing a bright orange life vest. In the background is a light blue body of water. A blanket of white clouds cover most of the blue sky.
4: A woman sits on a tan-gray rock to the right of the image. She is wearing a deep purple colored shirt and black pants. One of her legs is tucked up while the other hangs off the side of the rock, and her arms are gently crossed. The woman is at a higher elevation than the background, so the landscape behind her can be seen a far distance. The landscape to the left of the image is a nearly flat ground in dark green, brown, and orange colors, and centered in the image is a lake which is reflecting the color of the sky off of it. Above the horizon, the sky is a bright blue color, but is covered slightly by sparse gray clouds.
The UK’s acceleration toward *sustainable construction* underscores a decisive shift from ambition to delivery. National Grid ESO’s reforms to the grid connection process remove zombie projects and prioritise actionable, low carbon design ready to unlock billions in clean energy infrastructure. This structural change supports *green infrastructure* essential to *decarbonising the built environment*, linking energy planning with *sustainable building practices* that address both whole life carbon and embodied carbon impacts through rigorous whole life carbon assessment.
Offshore wind’s expansion, now generating nearly one-fifth of Britain’s electricity, highlights how *environmental sustainability in construction* relies on scalable, *eco-friendly construction* solutions. The developing offshore supply chain demands *sustainable building design* that integrates *circular economy in construction* strategies and *resource efficiency in construction*, enabling the transition towards *net zero carbon buildings* and *net zero whole life carbon* performance.
While material innovation remains subdued, the rise of energy-efficiency retrofits reflects a shift towards life cycle cost optimisation and *building lifecycle performance* over short-term gain. Firms such as Mapei point to recovery driven by energy-efficient buildings and *low embodied carbon materials*, reinforcing the value of *eco-design for buildings* and *sustainable material specification* guided by *environmental product declarations (EPDs)*. These principles strengthen the circular economy ethos and advance *carbon footprint reduction* across every project stage, from design to *end-of-life reuse in construction*.
Africa’s emerging solar market signals global diversification of *green construction*, with the continent expected to become a testbed for *low carbon building* strategies suited to extreme climates. The transition invites adoption of *circular construction strategies*, *renewable building materials*, and *sustainable urban development* underpinned by *life cycle thinking in construction*.
The alignment of policy reform, financial investment, and technical capability confirms that *sustainable design* has become core to delivering *carbon neutral construction* and reducing the *carbon footprint of construction* worldwide. The era of incremental action is ending—the new metric of success is measurable whole life carbon performance and resilient, *green building materials* innovation delivering true *sustainability* in the built environment.
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