Repairing is woven through our history. Understanding our global history...

Future Earth 5 months ago

Repairing is woven through our history. Understanding our global history through repair enables us to reconnect with it and revive its significance. Repairing your clothes instead of buying new ones saves valuable resources and lowers emissions. According to WRAP, repairing one cotton T-shirt can save over 7.5kg of CO2, the same amount as driving a car 70km. In the latest in our 5Isniders series, @aliciaminnaard, fashion designer, repairer and co-founder of @fixingfashion.community, will walk us through repairing’s importance, tips and tricks when starting repairing and teach us how to sashiko patch repair. Due to fast fashion, these artisanal techniques are dying out. Historically, repair was a common skill, as textiles were highly valuable. Now, clothes are more available than ever, so repairing is as crucial as ever. Lengthening our clothing’s lifespan also means striving towards an overall improvement of the system, towards a fashion industry that considers the quality of the products we buy, and the quality of the lives of the people who make them. As @orsoladecastro, co-founder of @fash_rev, said, “We aren’t mending because we can’t afford to buy new clothing, but we can’t afford to throw something away”. Follow @imagine5_official to not miss the next 2 episodes of the series! On-screen & script: @aliciaminnaard Produced: @_prunelle_ Directed: @hughmerous_

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 2 hours ago



The construction sector is entering a decisive stage in its push toward sustainable building design, shaped by new policy advocacy, improved regulation, and demonstrable industry commitments. The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) has formally supported the Architects Climate Action Network’s Circular Economy Policy Campaign, a move signalling broader acceptance of circular economy principles as central to environmental sustainability in construction. The focus on reuse, adaptability, and end‑of‑life reuse in construction reflects a maturing understanding that the carbon footprint of construction extends across a building’s entire lifespan. Introducing whole life carbon assessment as part of standard design processes is becoming a practical necessity for both cost management and long‑term resilience.

Equans UK & Ireland’s status as a Building a Safer Future (BSF) Champion highlights how sustainable design and accountability increasingly overlap with safety and social responsibility. The company’s recognition shows that decarbonising the built environment demands organisation‑wide transparency backed by measurable sustainability targets. Integrating lifecycle assessment across the supply chain ensures that embodied carbon in materials and operations is quantified and reduced. This shift towards low carbon design complements broader frameworks such as BREEAM and the forthcoming BREEAM v7 updates, both reinforcing the importance of life cycle thinking in construction.

Regulators are beginning to respond to industry calls for a streamlined approach that maintains ecological rigour while reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. The proposed reforms to environmental permits illustrate that practical compliance can coexist with high environmental performance when founded on evidence‑based life cycle cost analysis. Clear guidance on sustainable material specification and environmental product declarations (EPDs) can support consistent measurement of carbon footprint reduction across projects. This regulatory evolution encourages wider adoption of resource efficiency in construction, particularly as governments commit to net zero carbon and carbon neutral construction targets.

Recent research into circular economy in construction, inspired by modular telecoms infrastructure, demonstrates tangible potential for embodied carbon reduction. Applying circular construction strategies to wider sectors could significantly improve building lifecycle performance and deliver major financial and environmental savings. Modular, renewable building materials and low embodied carbon materials extend the service life of assets and underpin the shift to low‑impact construction models. As net zero whole life carbon frameworks become embedded, reuse and refurbishment will play equal roles alongside green building products and renewable design innovation.

The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to fall, driven in part by energy‑efficient buildings, low carbon construction materials, and a stronger focus on whole life carbon metrics. Challenges remain in housing retrofits, supply chain emissions, and verifiable reporting, but sustainable building practices are advancing rapidly. The convergence of eco‑design for buildings, sustainable architecture, and green infrastructure shows that sustainability is no longer a niche aspiration but a defining measure of quality. Genuine progress depends on integrating evaluation tools, transparent data, and consistent application of sustainable construction principles so that every low carbon building actively contributes to the net zero carbon future the sector now strives to achieve.

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Whole Life Carbon is a platform for the entire construction industry—both in the UK and internationally. We track the latest publications, debates, and events related to whole life guidance and sustainability. If you have any enquiries or opinions to share, please do get in touch.