Extreme heat, drought and wildfires are among the factors that have contributed to a rise in deadly air pollution, especially in the Western part of the country, said Katherine Pruitt, author of the report and senior director of the American Lung Association’s Nationwide Clean Air Policy.
“The air pollution produced by wildfire smoke is getting worse every year,” Pruitt said. “Climate change is contributing to that situation, and those wildfires are a very serious threat to our health.”
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law, and since then, emissions of outdoor air pollutants have dropped 78%, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
“But there still are way too many people breathing unhealthy air,” Pruitt said, adding that since the American Lung Association launched its annual “State of the Air” report in 2000, she has seen a shift in air pollution becoming a growing problem in the West.
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Sustainable construction is moving from ambition to delivery, with whole life carbon, embodied carbon and life cycle cost now shaping decisions on heat, materials and compliance.
New analysis suggests waste-heat networks and large air-source heat pumps could serve 70,000 new social and affordable homes at lower cost than electric panel heating, reducing energy bills by £142m. Record UK Boiler Upgrade Scheme heat-pump vouchers point to rising market confidence in low carbon building systems and energy-efficient buildings, strengthening the case for sustainable building design, low carbon design and net zero carbon buildings as practical infrastructure rather than policy rhetoric.
Circular economy in construction is gaining operational detail through new industry guidance on door reuse, supporting sustainable material specification, resource efficiency in construction and end-of-life reuse in construction.
The shift matters because embodied carbon in materials cannot be cut through cleaner cement alone. Contractors, insurers and regulators will need workable evidence routes for reused components, environmental product declarations (EPDs), lifecycle assessment and whole life carbon assessment if circular construction strategies are to compete with disposal. The priority is a reliable market for low embodied carbon materials, green building products, renewable building materials and low carbon construction materials that can reduce the carbon footprint of construction without creating unmanageable compliance burdens.
The central constraint is execution. Cleaner heat, eco-design for buildings, eco-friendly construction and safer delivery are meeting skills shortages, reskilling demands and post-Building Safety Act compliance pressures. Environmental sustainability in construction now depends on whether procurement teams, installers and building-control bodies can translate sustainable design into dependable, inspectable and affordable systems.
Net zero whole life carbon, BREEAM and BREEAM v7 ambitions will be won through building lifecycle performance, life cycle thinking in construction and carbon footprint reduction across design, specification, construction, operation and reuse. The strongest performers will be those able to make decarbonising the built environment a repeatable construction process, not a project-by-project aspiration.
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