Last year the US Supreme Court rolled back protections in the Clean Water Act in the Sackett v. EPA case. This puts a huge percentage of our nation’s streams, rivers, and overall water quality at risk of pollution. More studies have come out recently showing how important some of these waters are, like ephemeral streams, that have lost signifiant protections across the country.
Research by @aveiary and design by @bymatthewmiller for @futureearth
Sources:
“Study Finds Small Streams, Recently Stripped of Protections, Are a Big Deal” by Brad Plumer for New York Times
“What the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA Ruling Means for Wetlands and Other Waterways” by Jeff Turrentine for NRDC
“Ephemeral Streams Likely to Have Significant Effect on U.S. Water Quality” by Yale School of the Environment
“’Ephemeral Streams’ Are Critical—and a Supreme Court Decision Puts Them at Risk” by Jackie Flynn Mogensen for Mother Jones.
“In a Gift to Polluting Industries, Supreme Court rolls back Clean Water Act Protections” by Amy Westervelt for The Intercept
Material supply chains showed renewed complexity as Europe delayed enforcement of deforestation rules, affecting traceable sourcing of mass-timber and the embodied carbon in materials that underpin sustainable building practices. The deferral reinforces the need for lifecycle assessment and end-of-life reuse in construction, ensuring renewable building materials meet the standards of environmental product declarations (EPDs). Clients now prioritise deforestation-free, rights-respecting, low embodied carbon materials supported by circular economy in construction frameworks and robust whole life carbon assessments.
Rising energy prices across North America increase attention on energy-efficient buildings, deep retrofit strategies and life cycle cost optimisation. Developers are integrating eco-design for buildings that enhance operational performance while lowering the carbon footprint of construction. Water resilience is shaping sustainable building design in the UK, with drought prediction and reuse systems becoming part of life cycle thinking in construction and sustainable urban development.
The transition demands resource efficiency in construction and carbon neutral construction models that directly address the environmental impact of construction. Developers and contractors must commit to building lifecycle performance monitoring, circular construction strategies and sustainable material specification aligned with BREEAM v7 and similar frameworks. Environmental sustainability in construction now depends on design teams treating embodied carbon and whole life carbon as defining metrics for low-impact construction and durable, eco-friendly assets.
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