Towards a sustainable global construction and buildings value chain

The global construction and buildings value chain is a primary driver of resource extraction and greenhouse gas emissions, with significant impacts often outsourced from high-income to lower-income regions. The document argues that sustainability depends on decisions made at early stages—planning and finance—rather than later construction phases. Key challenges include the high cost of low-carbon materials and the difficulty of decarbonizing steel and cement. To address this, the brief recommends a combination of transparent data, material innovation, green public procurement, sustainable urban planning, and expanded retrofitting.

• The construction and buildings sectors have a massive global footprint, with the construction sector alone accounting for 50% of global resource extraction. In 2018, the combined sectors were responsible for more than one-third of global process-related CO2 emissions and final energy use.
• Environmental impacts are unequally distributed globally, as high-income regions frequently outsource the environmental burdens of their local construction to lower-income regions. This dynamic contributes to slower global growth in material efficiency because lower-income countries generally possess lower material efficiency.
• Decisions made during the pre-construction phase (planning and finance) have the most significant influence on the total value chain's impact. Conversely, stakeholders operating in the later construction phase have limited opportunities to reduce these impacts.
• Decarbonizing the construction phase is particularly difficult because steel and cement are among the hardest sectors to decarbonize. To align with the Paris Agreement, the IEA Net-Zero Scenario indicates that the use of cement and steel must be reduced by half by 2050.
• Economic barriers hinder the adoption of sustainable materials, as low-carbon alternatives carry significant price premiums. For example, low-carbon steel currently costs 15% to 40% more, and cement costs 75% to 210% more than standard options.
• Operational energy use accounts for 27% of the total greenhouse gas emissions generated by the construction sector. Demolition also contributes significantly to global material waste.

APA

Linde, L., Lewis, A. N., & Sanchez, F. (2022). Towards a sustainable global construction and buildings value chain. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/brief-towards-a-sustainable-global-construction-1.pdf

Chicago

Linde, Linus, Astrid Nilsson Lewis, and Felipe Sanchez. Towards a sustainable global construction and buildings value chain. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/brief-towards-a-sustainable-global-construction-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Linde |first1=Linus |last2=Lewis |first2=Astrid Nilsson |last3=Sanchez |first3=Felipe |title=Towards a sustainable global construction and buildings value chain |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/brief-towards-a-sustainable-global-construction-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{linde2022towards, author = {Linde, Linus and Lewis, Astrid Nilsson and Sanchez, Felipe}, title = {{Towards a sustainable global construction and buildings value chain}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/brief-towards-a-sustainable-global-construction-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }