Last week, the EPA opened up the first round of applications for the Thriving...

Inside Climate News 2 years ago

Last week, the EPA opened up the first round of applications for the Thriving Communities program, giving hopeful applicants like Nerbonne less than two months to navigate the complicated federal grantmaking process before Trump is sworn in. In fact, several EPA regions have yet to open their application processes, leaving some groups worried they won’t be able to complete their applications on time. Congressional Republicans have been vocal about their intention to cut or limit the environmental justice grant program, characterizing it as a form of cronyism, providing support to political allies of Democrats and opponents of fossil fuels. Trump himself suggested in a 2023 campaign video that he could “simply choke off the money” allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act. Ending environmental justice grantmaking is also part of the vision laid out in Project 2025, the policy roadmap that conservative groups drew up for Trump’s second term. Although Trump professed no familiarity with Project 2025 during the campaign, he has named authors of the plan to key positions in his new administration. Project 2025 called for pausing and reviewing all environmental justice grants in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions against affirmative action. Read more from @insideclimatenews on how Republicans plan to target environmental justice funding at the link in our bio. ✍️ @insideclimatenews 🎨 @fathersid_ @epagov #environment #climatechange

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 6 hours ago



The sustainable construction agenda is tightening as climate risk, planning pressure and fiscal restraint collide. In Nepal and Uttarakhand, rapid growth in tourism facilities, homes and infrastructure may have placed 300,000 people in the path of future floods and landslides, exposing the environmental impact of construction in vulnerable landscapes. The warning is clear: sustainable building design, low-impact construction and green infrastructure must account for hazard exposure, not just operational emissions or carbon footprint reduction.

Britain’s Autumn Budget signals a harder market for decarbonising the built environment. Housing, high streets, devolution and development received support, but a £700m cut to CCUS and hydrogen funding weakens routes for reducing embodied carbon in materials such as cement and steel.

The shift raises the importance of whole life carbon, whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment and life cycle cost in project appraisal, especially for developers targeting net zero carbon buildings, low carbon building performance and net zero whole life carbon.

Government support for gas-fuelled data centres, subject to stricter tests on energy use, water demand and nature impacts, shows how digital infrastructure is testing net zero carbon credibility. Approval of the carbon-capture gas plant at Peterhead reinforces the same tension. Transitional assets are being positioned as part of green construction, yet contractors and investors will face greater scrutiny over carbon footprint of construction, resource efficiency in construction and credible low carbon design.

New requirements around data-centre impacts, packaging taxation and landfill costs point to stronger demand for circular economy in construction, circular construction strategies and end-of-life reuse in construction. Sustainable material specification, environmental product declarations (EPDs), low embodied carbon materials, renewable building materials and green building products will become central to procurement. Frameworks such as BREEAM and BREEAM v7 are likely to gain influence as clients seek evidence of building lifecycle performance, eco-design for buildings and environmental sustainability in construction.

The direction of travel is blunt. Eco-friendly construction is moving beyond branding into planning consent, finance and delivery risk. Sustainable building practices, life cycle thinking in construction, green building materials and low carbon construction materials are becoming commercial necessities for resilient, energy-efficient buildings. Green construction now depends on whether projects can withstand climate hazards, grid constraints, material scrutiny and Treasury pressure at the same time.

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