As part of their effort to make Paris 2024 the “most responsible and...

CNN Climate 2 years ago

As part of their effort to make Paris 2024 the “most responsible and sustainable games in history,” organizers are building something that’s meant to last. Instead of rooming in apartments tailor-made for them, athletes in the Olympic Village this summer will be living in what will become someone else’s home or workplace. The hope is that the project will provide a model to alleviate a housing crisis in the French capital, where rising interest rates, surging prices and a supply crunch have made it harder than ever to buy or rent a home. Organizers are also running a handful of experiments to see if new green technologies and construction methods are viable in the real world. The human-caused climate crisis has made heat waves more frequent and intense, and they are starting earlier in the year in many parts of the world. The most scrutinized innovation will likely be the geothermal cooling system, as athletes in Paris could face the same level of sweltering heat and humidity that broiled Tokyo during the Summer Olympics there three years ago. Read more at the link in @CNN’s bio. 📸: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg/Getty Images; Joshua Berlinger/CNN

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 3 days ago



Water scarcity has become a core concern for sustainable construction and sustainable building design, with the United Nations warning of potential global water bankruptcy and heightened risk to desalination plants in the Gulf. The construction sector is shifting towards diversified water systems that embed efficiency, reuse, and resilience. These changes align with whole life carbon and lifecycle assessment principles, ensuring environmental sustainability in construction through resource efficiency in construction and life cycle cost analysis. In the UK, stronger regulation following pollution incidents is driving utilities to invest in cleaner networks and green infrastructure, creating new pipelines of low carbon construction materials and sustainable building practices.

Digital manufacturing is transforming eco-friendly construction through AI-driven tools that automate complex formwork and optimise material use. By integrating eco-design for buildings and low carbon design methodologies, contractors reduce embodied carbon in materials and the overall carbon footprint of construction. This digital precision supports net zero whole life carbon strategies and demonstrates how circular construction strategies underpin a circular economy in construction.

Energy security and climate risk are reinforcing the need for carbon neutral construction and renewable building materials. Projects optimised for energy-efficient buildings and net zero carbon buildings are proving more resilient, cost-stable, and aligned with whole life carbon assessment frameworks. The industry trajectory favours sustainable material specification, end-of-life reuse in construction, and decarbonising the built environment through lifecycle performance and life cycle thinking in construction. Firms advancing sustainable design founded on building lifecycle performance and resource efficiency will lower embodied carbon while improving long-term asset resilience, delivering measurable reductions in the environmental impact of construction.

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