Should we just stop building?

Following World Environment Day 2024, we dig into a complex and difficult question.

Construction is the single biggest source of greenhouse gases.

It produces vast amounts of waste.

The resource extraction needed to feed its demands puts enormous pressure on habitats and biodiversity.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of buildings stand empty, even as we prepare to build hundreds of thousands more.

So, what does enough look like?

To explore this issue, 21CC editor Rod Sweet is joined by some of the most advanced thinkers in sustainable construction today.

In this bracing and thought-provoking discussion, you’ll hear from:

• Hero Bennett, sustainability leader at building services engineers, Max Fordham;

• Will Arnold, climate action leader at the Institution of Structural Engineers and lead author of the proposed Part Z embodied carbon regulation for the UK;

• Saul Humphrey, consultant and professor of sustainable construction at Anglia Ruskin University;

• Hudson Worsley, chair of Australia’s Materials & Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance (34.47); and

• Amanda Williams, head of environmental sustainability at the Chartered Institute of Building.