As fires, floods and extreme weather events grow more frequent and intense, so do the risks and consequences for those living with chronic illness, mobility barriers or communication difficulties.
For many individuals living with disabilities and their loved ones, the Eaton Fire is a continuing trauma. The unprecedented blaze has left some folks in a state-of-no-return, uncertain when or if normal daily routines will ever be restored. Recovery is not a simple matter.
The story of the Valdez-Perera family is not an outlier, and it illustrates a pattern in climate disasters: disabled people are more likely to be harmed or displaced, less likely to receive timely aid and more likely to be permanently cut off from care.
To learn more, read the full story by Nina Dietz via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org. This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is co-published here with permission.
Sustainable construction is shifting from rhetoric to rigorous evaluation of place, purpose, and impact. Developers in water‑stressed regions are prioritising compact, low carbon building forms grounded in environmental sustainability in construction, aligning land‑use with watershed management and climate resilience. In India, repeated landslide damage has underscored the cost of neglecting hydrology and slope stability, reinforcing the role of sustainable building design rooted in life cycle thinking in construction and local conditions.
Across the sector, high‑performance affordable housing and corporate campuses are setting new benchmarks for sustainable building practices. Whole life carbon assessment and lifecycle assessment are emerging as essential tools for comparing retrofit versus new‑build decisions, directing focus to embodied carbon, embodied carbon in materials and end‑of‑life reuse in construction.
The scrutiny of the carbon footprint of construction and life cycle cost metrics is steering clients toward low embodied carbon materials, energy‑efficient buildings and renewable building materials. Corporate commitments to net zero carbon and net zero whole life carbon are driving adoption of eco‑design for buildings and low carbon design frameworks informed by BREEAM and BREEAM v7 standards.
Circular economy in construction principles are shaping specifications that favour circular construction strategies, green building materials and sustainable material specification to minimise waste and maximise resource efficiency in construction. Equity and resilience now define sustainable urban development. Communities engaged in green infrastructure planning and carbon neutral construction are finding that social outcomes and trust can accelerate delivery and reduce the environmental impact of construction.
Practitioners are integrating whole life carbon data, environmental product declarations (EPDs) and building lifecycle performance indicators alongside cost and quality, embedding sustainable design and green construction values at every scale. The global agenda for decarbonising the built environment is moving from aspiration to measurable specification, signalling a decisive turn toward low‑impact construction that balances performance, affordability and long‑term sustainability.
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
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