ENERGY POSITIVE HOMES
Enhance your comfort, save energy and money by adapting your home and your habits to be more efficient
Cheerful greetings.
Welcome to the 12th day of our AOA challenge for sustainable lifestyle.
The challenge target youth around the world - the next generation of consumers and change-makers - to show that sustainable living is easy, cool and fun.
Sustainable appliances at home, and behaviors such as opting for renewable energy, and even insulating our home against weather changes can dramatically reduce emissions and promote climate change mitigation.
Energy efficiency and renewables can save money, generate utility savings over time, and increase the value of property. Making our home more sustainable can also help support the local economy and can increase the level of comfort by enhancing the quality of our lives.
How Does Construction Impact the Environment?
Have you ever heard the saying, ‘’Everyone acts like nothing will change, yet everything changes’’? It could not be more true when it comes to construction and its approach to ecology. In reality, the construction sector contributes to 23% of air pollution, 40% of drinking water pollution, and 50% of landfill wastes.
Natural Resources
The construction sector is one of the largest exploiters of resources, with half of them being non-renewable. According to the World Watch Institute, the industry consumes 40% of the world's usage in raw stones, gravel and sand and 25% of its virgin wood per year.
Biodiversity
Think about how construction impacts animals. Noise and light pollution heavily impact wildlife, especially bats, badgers and birds, by disturbing their natural day cycle. Construction work also has long term effects on wildlife. To mention just a few:
- air and water pollution
- hydrological impacts
- isolation
- populations fragmentation
Such changes significantly impact animals, forcing them to change their way of living and reducing their population.
Atmosphere
When it comes to air pollution, every action matters as the production of dioxide gases is one of the main factors causing global warming. The construction sector is responsible for 39% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide emissions. This high percentage stems from actions on the construction site, transportation, and the manufacturing of building materials.
Waste
Rubbish is everywhere. Construction generates a massive amount of waste because it relies on fast, cheap solutions that need to be replaced every year or even every few months. Simultaneously, recycling is still not a must on construction sites, resulting in many valuable materials being wasted.
Of course, we cannot stop our businesses and the whole economy, but we can balance our environmental impact with thoughtful actions.
Luckily, nothing is lost yet. For example, green building is becoming a significant trend nowadays, supported by government programs and funds. Many companies have decided to invest in sustainable technologies like solar power or durable materials that help to reduce waste and minimize energy usage. There are also ways for construction companies to reduce their carbon footprint that do not necessarily involve large investments.
When it comes to system solutions, the zero-net target for carbon emissions by 2050 that was legislated by the UK government may be the driving force behind this change.
International Energy Agency laid out a pathway for reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
One feature got a lot of attention: It called for an end to oil exploration and the development of new fields.
Angola is a case in point. Its oil production has been in steady decline since 2016 and that’s only going to accelerate.
The country relies on foreign oil companies to extract crude from fields thousands of meters below the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The 2014 oil price crash hit investment in its oil sector hard and production began to fall two years later, when the flow of projects that were already in development came to an end. Crude production fell by a third in little more than four years.
Steep declines at Angola’s offshore fields mean that, without investment in exploration and the development of new deposits, its production will fall further. Other West African countries — Nigeria, the continent's biggest oil producer, among them — will suffer a similar fate.
The All Hands on Deck media challenge, based on the Anatomy of Action approach, works through organizations and networks involved in climate, nature, youth, education and sustainable development to galvanize, one effective voice of change and to create an aspirational mosaic of what sustainable living already looks like.
By taking part in this challenge, all participants and influencers can have a positive impact within their community and contribute to a global movement targeting policy makers around the world in 2022.
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