Building Forward Better

The report examines the challenges and opportunities for a 'green recovery' in Ukraine following Russia's invasion, which caused direct damages of USD 176 billion. While Ukraine has established governance structures and transparency tools like the DREAM platform, it lacks a unified national reconstruction strategy, leaving sustainability efforts fragmented. The document highlights the town of Trostianets as a successful local model of sustainable rebuilding and suggests that Ukraine align its recovery with EU standards, such as the EU Taxonomy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. It recommends the adoption of international green building and infrastructure certifications (e.g., EDGE, Envision) to ensure long-term resilience and climate neutrality.

• Ukraine faces immense reconstruction costs, with direct physical damage estimated at USD 176 billion and long-term needs exceeding USD 524 billion as of December 2024, with housing and transport sectors accounting for over half of the direct damage.
• Despite high-level political commitment to 'building back better,' Ukraine lacks a single, unified national reconstruction strategy, resulting in a fragmented approach to green recovery across different sectors and policies.
• The Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management (DREAM) platform has improved transparency, hosting over 8,000 projects with a budget of UAH 512 billion by late 2024, though it currently lacks consistent tracking of sustainability metrics like carbon accounting and energy efficiency.
• Trostianets serves as a local model for sustainable recovery, having updated its master plan to prioritize low-carbon housing and implementing a flagship project to upgrade a residential building to fossil-free housing using passive house standards and heat pumps.
• Ukraine's recovery is heavily influenced by EU frameworks; the Ukraine Facility (providing up to EUR 50 billion over 4 years) and the Ukraine Plan are designed to align national efforts with EU environmental standards and the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities.
• International financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, EIB, and EBRD apply stringent ESG and Paris Agreement alignment standards, but the variety of different ESG criteria across these institutions creates duplicated efforts for local implementers.
• In the building and transport sectors, Ukraine is encouraged to move away from outdated norms by adopting international certifications such as EDGE for buildings and Envision for infrastructure to ensure energy efficiency and climate resilience.

APA

Ackermann, A., Oharenko, Y., Terton, A., Wiebe, K., & Soman, S. (2025). Building Forward Better. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2025-07/building-forward-better-sustainable-recovery-ukraine.pdf

Chicago

Ackermann, Anna, Yuliia Oharenko, Anika Terton, Kyle Wiebe, and Samuel Soman. Building Forward Better. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2025. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2025-07/building-forward-better-sustainable-recovery-ukraine.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ackermann |first1=Anna |last2=Oharenko |first2=Yuliia |last3=Terton |first3=Anika |last4=Wiebe |first4=Kyle |last5=Soman |first5=Samuel |title=Building Forward Better |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=July 2025 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2025-07/building-forward-better-sustainable-recovery-ukraine.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ackermann2025building, author = {Ackermann, Anna and Oharenko, Yuliia and Terton, Anika and Wiebe, Kyle and Soman, Samuel}, title = {{Building Forward Better}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2025-07/building-forward-better-sustainable-recovery-ukraine.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }