For the last four months, Racha Mousdikoudine and her two children have had little or no running water in their home on the French territory of Mayotte, an island of around 310,000 people in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa.
Mayotte is facing an unprecedented water crisis amid one of the worst droughts in its history, as the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis collide with a chronic lack of investment in the water system.
Residents only have access to water for around 18 hours at a time every couple of days, according to a schedule published by the Prefecture, the local subdivision of the French government. Many say what little water they have is often contaminated and undrinkable.
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The Mersey Heat Network’s integration of heritage landmarks into a modern water-powered heating system marks a landmark in sustainable construction and environmental sustainability in construction. The retrofitting of Liverpool’s Grade II-listed Cunard Building, Georges Dock Building and the Museum of Liverpool shows how eco-design for buildings and low carbon design can reduce the carbon footprint of construction without compromising historic character. This project illustrates whole life carbon assessment principles, ensuring that heating efficiency, material preservation and operational performance combine to achieve net zero whole life carbon outcomes over each building lifecycle performance phase.
Centrica and National Gas have strengthened the UK’s decarbonisation pathway by trialling hydrogen integration in the national transmission network. Through this experiment in low carbon construction materials and infrastructure adaptation, the companies demonstrate how decarbonising the built environment can be achieved using transitional fuels. The effort’s success will depend on life cycle cost optimisation and a robust lifecycle assessment to verify genuine whole life carbon savings. Energy networks adopting such innovation could form a blueprint for carbon neutral construction strategies aligned with net zero carbon buildings targets.
The Co-op’s move into energy consultancy underscores the increasing role of business in practical sustainable building practices. By guiding organisations towards energy-efficient buildings, renewable sources and resource efficiency in construction, the service recognises the multidimensional benefits of sustainable design and green infrastructure. Its focus on life cycle thinking in construction and strategic energy procurement offers firms pathways to reduce operational embodied carbon in materials and total carbon footprint reduction while enhancing building lifecycle performance.
In parallel, the maritime sector’s push beyond methane-based propulsion technologies echoes lessons from circular economy in construction and circular construction strategies. Rotor sail innovation, once an anachronism, is being revisited as a model of sustainable material specification and eco-friendly construction thinking applied to marine engineering. This crossover shows how transferable principles of green construction and renewable building materials can transform adjacent industries and reinforce the broader circular economy vision underpinning global sustainability objectives.
Concerns around direct lithium extraction reflect the tension between innovation and unintended consequences in the transition towards low carbon building materials. Experts emphasise rigorous environmental product declarations (EPDs) and whole life carbon metrics to track the environmental impact of construction and related supply chains. Balancing end-of-life reuse in construction and fresh resource extraction will be essential to maintaining sustainable urban development and fair environmental management. The projects emerging across energy, infrastructure and design spheres reveal a sector committed to net zero carbon ambitions through evidence-based performance, resilience, and sustainable building design with measurable long-term results.
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