As we face the impacts of climate change and increasing urbanisation, the way we design, construct and use our buildings increasingly requires scrutiny. This is because buildings and construction account for such a large share of global GHG emissions. The question emerges if we are relying too much on energy efficiency and adopting green technologies to curb these environmental impacts or is there something more foundational that we need to give our attention to?
More buildings = more emissions
C-EDGE and STEM Adjunct Professor David Ness wants to put something new on the agenda – our obsession with material-driven growth.
Between 2015 and 2021, global floor area of our building stock increased by 11%, outpacing population growth. The impacts of all these additional buildings means more materials, more energy and more emissions. In wealthier countries, we see energy-efficient technologies reducing emissions per square metre, but that progress is being cancelled out by the sheer growth in building stock.
The efficiency myth
Many technological solutions to reduce emissions are championed at global climate summits, including
- clean energy, low-carbon construction materials
- circular economy principles that focus on recycling and reuse.
Prof Ness, who co-founded the World Sufficiency Lab Paris, argues that while these innovations are valuable, they are just not enough to meet the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
“Efficiency alone can’t save us,” he explains.
“We’re addressing the symptoms but ignoring the disease—our insatiable demand for more space.”
A radical change in thinking
The recent COP29, though, witnessed a major global breakthrough; the formal launch of a report on Sufficiency and the Built Environment under the auspices of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. Prof Ness played a key role as a reviewer and writing the foreword, while also leading the COP29 Webinar that presented key findings.
These included:
- Integrate a ‘sufficiency first’ principle in all policies for building decarbonisation: reducing demand for land, floor area, materials and energy
- Question and justify the need to build new: this would considerably reduce ‘upfront’ carbon and resource consumption
- Repurpose and adapt existing buildings: make better use of what we already have rather than constructing new homes, offices or shopping centres
- Share and downsize: Co-housing can reduce urban sprawl as well as foster community.
What is sufficiency?
This concept can mean slowing down our current construction frenzy and prioritising what we build and where, within carbon budgets. With ample floor space available in wealthier countries, the focus should be on maintaining and upgrading existing buildings. In poorer countries where population growth and urbanisation are driving demand, sufficiency means finding ways to build more sustainably.
It means meeting needs with minimal resource use. To cut emissions and build a fairer world. At the moment, the wealthiest 10% of the global population are responsible for almost half of consumption-based emissions. , while the poorest 50% still struggle to access basic resources.
A new way forward
Imagine a city that leans into the nostalgia of its existing building stock and we breathe life into these instead of tearing them down. Where we ‘live, work, and play’ in compact neighbourhoods that give us everything we need close by. Where we build less but live better.
Sufficiency can help share resources more equitably and also aligns with other urgent priorities like poverty reduction and biodiversity protection. If we consume fewer materials, we can direct resources to where they are needed most.
Professor Ness’s message is clear: we cannot build our way out of climate change. It means rethinking our relationship with the built environment with sufficiency not a sacrifice but a smarter and fairer way forward.
To read the full paper, please visit > https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.297
For a webinar on sufficiency and the built environment that Professor Ness participated in > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY5D7gN5JM4
To contact Professor Ness > David.ness@unisa.edu.au
