It started with spots dappled across people’s chests and backs. Unusual hard patches on the skin of their palms and soles of their feet. For some, a blackening of their toes.
Doctors and researchers began noticing patients in Bangladesh presenting with these kinds of symptoms in the 1980s. It soon became clear what they were seeing: classic signs of arsenic poisoning.
In a tragic irony, the reason was eventually traced back to an otherwise hugely successful public-health program.
In the 1970s, children in Bangladesh were dying in high numbers from diseases such as dysentery and cholera after drinking dirty water from rivers, lakes and streams. In response, Bangladesh’s government, along with aid agencies spearheaded by UNICEF, launched a huge effort to tap into cleaner water underground.
Now, in a cruel twist, the situation could be set to worsen. New evidence suggests the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis — including flooding and sea level rise — are changing the water chemistry underground and pushing up arsenic levels even further.
Read more at the link in our bio.
📷: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images; Seth H. Frisbie
A recent survey shows that most large businesses are failing to incorporate climate risks into new construction projects. This exposes developments to flood and extreme weather damage while undermining efforts to reach net zero Whole Life Carbon. Insurers are increasingly pressing for resilience planning, and the lack of a Whole Life Carbon Assessment in early project stages leaves significant risks unaddressed. Developers treating Embodied Carbon as a marginal issue face higher long-term costs rather than true Life Cycle Cost control.
Institutional capital is rapidly shifting towards sustainable construction, moving beyond climate risk debates to fund resilience and low carbon design. This trend is unlocking investment in sustainable building design and net zero carbon buildings, aligning financial flows with environmental sustainability in construction. For developers, demonstrating life cycle thinking in construction and proving reduced Embodied Carbon in materials is becoming critical to accessing large-scale finance.
The University of Derby has launched the Institute of Carbonomics to advance research in reducing emissions across industries. While broader in scope, the initiative is set to influence eco-design for buildings and sustainable architecture, embedding lifecycle assessment and sustainable building practices into commercial decision-making. Its outputs are expected to shape climate-smart construction by linking resource efficiency in construction to Whole Life Carbon reduction strategies.
Private investment momentum is also growing. Gresham House’s acquisition of clean energy investor SUSI Partners increases its capacity to fund green infrastructure, net zero carbon projects, and Circular Economy in construction approaches. This creates deeper capital pools for low carbon building technologies and renewable building materials, enabling more developers to pursue carbon neutral construction without prohibitive upfront costs.
Consumer demand reinforces this momentum. Rising energy costs are driving homeowners towards energy-efficient buildings and eco-friendly construction upgrades, accelerating adoption of green building products and smart retrofitting. For construction firms, this highlights a profitable pathway where sustainable building practices align with direct financial savings, embedding sustainable material specification as a market-driven necessity.
The “Nature in Contracts” initiative, supported by the UK Green Building Council, signals growing attention to biodiversity and the environmental impact of construction within procurement frameworks. By embedding nature-positive clauses, developers are being pushed towards circular construction strategies, sustainable urban development, and environmental product declarations (EPDs). This integration signals a future where green construction becomes inseparable from legal and financial compliance, sharpening the focus on Embodied Carbon in materials and building lifecycle performance.
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