Kimberly-Clark has announced the deployment of green hydrogen boilers across its manufacturing sites to cut 28,500 tonnes of emissions each year. While focused on heavy industry rather than buildings, the initiative illustrates how existing infrastructure can be decarbonised without delay. Lessons from such industrial shifts inform sustainable construction, where reducing the carbon footprint of construction requires similar innovation and an emphasis on net zero whole life carbon strategies.

In Glasgow, the historic Teacher building has been converted into serviced apartments by Mosaic Architecture + Design. By retaining the existing structure, the project avoids demolishing and rebuilding, a step that significantly lowers embodied carbon in materials compared to new construction. Repurposing heritage assets in this way demonstrates how whole life carbon assessment and building lifecycle performance can align with preservation, while also tackling the often-overlooked embedded carbon challenge in urban regeneration.

The approach taken in Glasgow highlights the importance of sustainable building design and eco-design for buildings to meet climate goals. Adaptive reuse illustrates circular economy in construction, ensuring reduced waste and lower life cycle cost than conventional redevelopment. Such strategies show the potential for combining sustainable building practices with viable commercial outcomes, strengthening confidence in sustainable urban development and long-term resource efficiency in construction.

Traceability solutions from Australia’s Source Certain offer a glimpse into the future of supply chain transparency. Their work on tracking critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt can underpin more responsible sourcing of low carbon construction materials. For the construction sector, which relies on batteries, electrification and renewable technologies, supply chain accountability is becoming integral to decarbonising the built environment and maintaining confidence in claims of net zero carbon buildings.

Local authorities in Devon have added 11 new electric vehicles to their fleet following trials. While modest, the shift represents tangible action towards reducing the environmental impact of construction and public services. Maintenance of housing, roads and infrastructure increasingly demands green construction logistics. Such changes, embedded in local systems, exemplify scalable solutions that contribute to carbon neutral construction goals and broader environmental sustainability in construction.

Across these developments, the direction of travel for global construction is clear: addressing whole life carbon, minimising embodied carbon, and embedding life cycle thinking in construction are no longer optional. Achieving reliable, measurable results through lifecycle assessment strengthens pathways to resilient, energy-efficient buildings, advances the use of green building materials, and accelerates progress towards genuine net zero carbon outcomes.