Environmental defenders are often on the front lines of conflicts over mining, oil and gas development, logging and agribusiness—making them especially vulnerable to retaliation from governments, businesses and other legal and illegal actors.
Colombia was the deadliest country for human rights defenders last year, with 165 killed, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders. That violence was caused by competition over land, resources and economic control in regions where armed groups, illegal mining and other extractive activities intersect—what the report called “economies of violence.”
“Defenders who challenge land dispossession, extractive industries, or illicit economies often confronted the same networks of power, regardless of whether those activities were formally lawful or criminalised,” the authors of the report wrote.
🔗 Read more on our website, linked in our bio
✍️ @katie.surma
📸 Getty Images
Permafrost degradation is accelerating, turning climate risk into a design driver for foundations, drainage and utilities in cold regions. Project teams are pivoting to sustainable building design, lifecycle assessment and life cycle thinking in construction to safeguard building lifecycle performance and resilience.
England’s drought resilience agenda is entering mainstream briefs, driving demand for high‑efficiency fixtures, on‑site reuse, smart metering and water‑sensitive urban design in energy‑efficient buildings. Schemes are targeting breeam and breeam v7 water and resilience credits while strengthening green infrastructure within sustainable urban development.
London’s office market is embedding retrofit first, retaining structures to cut embodied carbon and the carbon footprint of construction, speed delivery and support net zero carbon buildings and net zero whole life carbon. Outcomes are being evidenced through whole life carbon assessment and transparent life cycle cost analysis, boosting confidence in low carbon building investment.
Material strategy is shifting to low embodied carbon materials and renewable building materials, with sustainable material specification guided by environmental product declarations (epds) to reduce embodied carbon in materials and enable circular economy in construction.
Modular delivery expanding across the Benelux is pairing factory precision with low carbon construction materials and green building products to drive resource efficiency in construction, circular construction strategies and affordable, eco‑friendly construction.
The UK’s golden thread is making verified product and performance data a precondition for circular economy, end‑of‑life reuse in construction and finance, linking provenance to decarbonising the built environment, carbon neutral construction and measurable carbon footprint reduction within environmental sustainability in construction. Eco‑design for buildings, sustainable construction, green construction and low carbon design are becoming baseline sustainable building practices in sustainable architecture.
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.
Let's chat!
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?
