Laura Perrin is a technical consultant at WPS Compliance Consulting
Earth Overshoot Day marks the point each year when humanity’s demand for resources exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. This year it fell on 1 August. Globally, we have depleted the world’s annual resources in just 214 days.
“To meet the IPCC’s 2030 target, Earth Overshoot Day must be pushed back by 19 days each year for the next seven years”
The overshoot day is not the same for every country. In the UK, it was passed even earlier, on 3 June. Last year it fell on 19 May, which might seem like a small win, but we are still on an unsustainable path.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has set a target to reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 compared with the 2019 level. This is towards the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C by the end of the century. To meet the IPCC’s 2030 target, Earth Overshoot Day must be pushed back by 19 days each year for the next seven years.
Construction is the largest industrial emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for 37 per cent of global emissions, with the production and use of building materials such as steel and concrete having a significant carbon footprint. If we are to delay Earth Overshoot Day, the industry must undergo a significant transformation. It should be our responsibility to design and construct buildings with sustainability in mind, through thoughtful material selection, by applying the waste hierarchy in priority order, with sustainable urban planning and by improving energy efficiency. Efforts have begun, but with each passing year, the construction industry’s contribution to emissions increases.
The path forward
Simple changes could have a significant impact. Earth Overshoot Day could be delayed by 2.4 days by using concrete made with recycled aggregate instead of conventional concrete. One Swiss construction company recovers mixed construction waste from demolished buildings, turning it into circular concrete composed of recycled materials. A cement plant in Norway is in the process of constructing a carbon-capture storage system, enabling the cement it produces to be designated as net-zero carbon. The choice of material has a significant impact on a building’s environmental footprint.
BREEAM sustainability certification is popular in the UK and is one of the world’s leading assessment methods in planning infrastructure and buildings. More thought is going into how buildings are being designed and built with the adoption of circular-economy principles, incorporating ideas such as using high-efficiency insulation and implementing renewable energy sources. Retrofitting existing buildings and decarbonising electricity production could delay the overshoot date by 21 days.
These are a few ideas on how the construction industry could pivot towards sustainability. The UK has been ‘overshooting’ since 1960, and there is an urgent need for sustainable practices across the industry. Constructing with the future in mind and for the generations to come will ensure Earth Overshoot Day continues to move in the right direction.
