The day after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Eric Shonkwiler looked at his hiking bag to figure out what supplies he had. "I began to look at that as a resource for escape, should that need to happen," he said. He didn't have the terminology for it at the time, but this backpack was his "bug-out bag" — essential supplies for short-term survival. It marked the start of his journey into prepping. In his Ohio home, which he shares with his wife and a Pomeranian dog, Rosemary, he now has a six-month supply of food and water, a couple of firearms and a brood of chickens. "Resources to bridge the gap across a disaster," he said.
Margaret Killjoy's entry point was a bleak warning in 2016 from a scientist friend, who told her climate change was pushing the global food system closer than ever to collapse. Killjoy started collecting food, water and generators. She bought a gun and learned how to use it. She started a prepping podcast, "Live Like the World is Dying," and grew a community.
Prepping has long been dominated by those on the political right. The classic stereotype, albeit not always accurate, is of the lone wolf with a basement full of Spam, a wall full of guns, and a mind full of conspiracy theories.
Shonkwiler and Killjoy belong to a much smaller part of the subculture: They are left-wing preppers. This group is also preparing for a doom-filled future, and many also have guns, but they say their prepping emphasizes community and mutual aid over bunkers and isolationism.
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📸 : Maddie McGarvey and Laura Oliverio for CNN
Recent initiatives suggest the construction industry is accelerating its shift towards sustainable building design through workforce reform, advanced technology, and sharper policy direction. The UK’s renewed focus on training aims to build environmental literacy across the sector, producing engineers and architects skilled in whole life carbon assessment and low carbon design. The initiative responds to a growing demand for professionals capable of evaluating embodied carbon in materials and optimising life cycle cost from concept to demolition. By embedding life cycle thinking in construction, the programme positions carbon neutral construction not as a distant aspiration but a measurable standard for every project stage.
Digital innovation is advancing rapidly. Greyparrot’s recognition on TIME’s Best Inventions list underscores the vital role of artificial intelligence in enabling a circular economy in construction. Its AI-driven waste analysis tool provides data that supports lifecycle assessment and resource efficiency in construction, improving the reuse of renewable building materials and reducing the carbon footprint of construction waste. The technology aligns with broader efforts toward circular construction strategies, ensuring that construction processes contribute to genuine emissions reduction and sustainable material specification rather than incremental efficiency gains.
European policy adjustments are influencing how large firms report their environmental performance. The streamlining of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is reshaping accountability across the continent, reinforcing the necessity of assessing embodied carbon, net zero whole life carbon, and the environmental impact of construction projects. Large contractors are being pressed to connect disclosure with measurable outcomes through BREEAM and the forthcoming BREEAM V7 framework. These tools are helping the sector benchmark low carbon construction materials, life cycle cost analyses, and environmental product declarations (EPDs) against net zero carbon standards, extending their reach from procurement to end-of-life reuse in construction.
Technical innovation on the ground mirrors these policy trends. Passive fire protection technologies, once viewed solely through a safety lens, are now evaluated as part of sustainable building practices where resilient insulation and fire barriers enhance both energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in construction. These systems embody eco-design for buildings, supporting energy-efficient buildings that reduce operational and embodied emissions simultaneously. This link between safety and sustainability demonstrates that low-impact construction principles can coexist with practical performance and cost effectiveness.
Attention to people and purpose is reinforcing these changes. The confirmation of Prince William’s attendance at COP30 frames the climate agenda within a human context, aligning diplomatic advocacy with the technical challenge of decarbonising the built environment. For developers and design professionals pursuing sustainable architecture and green construction, the message is increasingly clear: the path to net zero carbon buildings hinges on integrated design, accurate whole life carbon assessment, and disciplined use of low embodied carbon materials. The sector’s current trajectory suggests that sustainable construction is evolving into a data-led, ethics-informed discipline where environmental accountability is as fundamental as structural integrity.
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