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.
Momentum in sustainable construction is uneven but accelerating as firms realign toward low carbon design, embodied carbon reduction and whole life carbon assessment. Mapei’s sector outlook places energy-efficient buildings and residential retrofits at the centre of recovery strategies, where life cycle cost and resource efficiency in construction drive both environmental and economic gains. These developments signal that decarbonising the built environment demands more than new projects; it relies on sustainable building design integrating circular economy in construction principles and eco-design for buildings that lower the carbon footprint of construction.
Despite this transition, data from the PMI indicate persistent weakness in traditional markets, intensifying the pressure on businesses to adopt sustainable building practices and green construction methods. Limited large-scale investment in net zero carbon buildings and low embodied carbon materials constrains growth. Financial fragility among small firms is slowing innovation in renewable building materials and circular construction strategies needed to achieve true net zero whole life carbon outcomes.
Practical demonstrations such as the adaptive reuse of Bacon Mews House exemplify sustainable architecture focused on embodied carbon in materials and end-of-life reuse in construction. These projects demonstrate how whole life carbon performance and lifecycle assessment can underpin sustainable urban development, transforming heritage spaces into low carbon buildings aligned with BREEAM and modern eco-friendly construction criteria. They prove that environmental sustainability in construction depends on measurable building lifecycle performance, not rhetoric.
Governments adopting circular economy policies and incentivising green building materials show that sustainable material specification and environmental product declarations (EPDs) can make decarbonising the built environment a market reality. Those clinging to outdated procurement frameworks risk undermining carbon footprint reduction and life cycle thinking in construction. The sector’s future resilience lies in embedding environmental impact of construction metrics into every phase, ensuring sustainable design delivers carbon neutral construction and low-impact construction from concept to completion.
Whole Life Carbon is a platform for the entire construction industry—both in the UK and internationally. We track the latest publications, debates, and events related to whole life guidance and sustainability. If you have any enquiries or opinions to share, please do
get in touch.
eco
WLC Assistant
Ask me about sustainability
Hi! I'm your Whole Life Carbon assistant. I can help you learn about sustainability, carbon assessment, and navigate our resources. How can I help you today?