A breath of fresh air 😮‍💨 For the past 17 years, @nasa’s Aura...

NASA Climate Change 2 years ago

A breath of fresh air 😮‍💨 For the past 17 years, @nasa’s Aura satellite has watched our air get cleaner. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, such as coal power plants or gasoline and diesel vehicles. This air pollutant has been linked to health problems including asthma. NASA’s Aura satellite has been measuring NO2 for nearly two decades.  This animation shows the yearly average NO2 from 2005 to 2022. You can see the air get cleaner. The cleaner air is primarily due to environmental rules that have helped reduce air pollution from power plants and cars. #NASA #EarthData #NitrogenDioxide #AirQuality #Earth #NASAEarth Video Description: A data visualization of average nitrogen dioxide levels over the United States as measured from space from 2005 to 2022. At the start of the animation, dark purple spots are seen over major cities throughout the country indicating high levels of air pollution. Rural areas are shown in light blue indicating low nitrogen dioxide levels. The dark purple spots fade into orange and then yellow as you move away from large city centers, however most of the Northeast is some shade of yellow-purple. As time moves forward the dark purple spots slowly shrink and fade leaving the majority of the map light blue with only small concentrations of dark purple over New York and Los Angeles.

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 11 hours ago



Sustainable construction is accelerating towards measurable decarbonisation as innovation, policy, and supply chain governance begin to align. In London, bio‑based wallboards such as Adaptavate’s Breathaboard—used in Legal & General’s new headquarters—demonstrate how low embodied carbon materials with environmental product declarations (EPDs) are entering large‑scale deployment. This marks a shift from theory to delivery in eco‑friendly construction and underscores the importance of Whole Life Carbon Assessment across sustainable building design.

UK policy now links agriculture and the built environment through a £240 million expansion of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, improving soil health and cutting reliance on high‑carbon fertilisers. These measures support decarbonising the built environment and address the embodied carbon in materials central to net zero Whole Life Carbon targets. As scrutiny of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol exposes inconsistencies in corporate carbon reporting, reliable lifecycle assessment frameworks are becoming critical to verifying low carbon building outcomes and aligning procurement with sustainable material specification.

Growth in renewables, driven by projections of a fourfold expansion in offshore wind capacity by 2035, is reshaping operational emissions and strengthening the foundation for carbon neutral construction and energy‑efficient buildings designed under BREEAM V7 guidelines. This integration of renewable building materials and design principles reflects a more mature phase in the industry’s evolution towards net zero carbon buildings and a functioning Circular Economy in construction.

The sector’s trajectory points towards verified performance, where Whole Life Carbon, Life Cycle Cost, and transparent building lifecycle performance replace aspirations with measurable delivery. The transition from demonstration to large‑scale adaptation defines modern environmental sustainability in construction, confirming that the next decade will test implementation rather than intent across every level of sustainable building practices and green construction worldwide.

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