With climate change comes severe weather events, heightened temperatures and rising sea levels.
A climate-adaptive building considers these future environmental factors, granting it built-in resilience while minimising its effect on the local ecosystem.
Construction professionals who build them can take advantage of structural longevity and potential rent premiums.
The construction industry must adapt to the climate
For most of human history, people lived in small, spread-out communities.
Over the past few centuries, the population density in urban areas has shifted dramatically.
According to Our World in Data, over half the global population — more than four billion people — now live in cities. Some experts say this is an underestimate, estimating that around 80 per cent live in urban areas.
Since urbanisation is on the rise, constructing climate-adaptive commercial structures is important.
Construction professionals must future-proof designs for multiple reasons
For one, it will mitigate the built environment’s environmental impact, reducing climate change effects.
It will also make buildings more resilient to heat, weather and natural disaster damage.
In many parts of the world, the effects of climate change are already apparent. Within decades, they will become difficult to ignore.
The World Green Building Council estimates around 970 cities could be subject to extreme heat by 2050, while rising sea levels could impact another 570. More will experience increasingly frequent and severe weather events.
Climate change threatens to increase material scarcity. For instance, increased drought frequency could stunt plant growth, complicating timber sourcing.
Also, severe weather events could disrupt supply chains and lengthen project timelines. Adopting climate-first practices helps the industry as a whole.
Constructing climate-adaptive commercial buildings
Construction leaders should prioritise geographic surveys and heed land use policies to avoid developing in high-risk areas.
For example, those in coastal regions should avoid silty soils since their high proportion of very fine particles makes them susceptible to erosion.
Approaching projects from a future-oriented, climate-focused perspective is key for building resilient spaces.
Material selection is another major consideration. Sourcing local resources through a circular economy reduces transportation-related environmental impacts.
Those free of volatile organic compounds and toxic chemicals like perfluorinated compounds are ideal because they can offset the adverse health effects climate change causes.
Careful site and material selection can lengthen the project timeline, however there are other sector advancements that can offset this.
Automation may be necessary since labour shortages brought on by demand fluctuations and an aging workforce are common in this sector.
Robotics is a practical solution because these advancing technologies are already an industry staple.
Every year, the construction industry spends approximately $10 trillion on robotics, accounting for around 13 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product.
Contractors will not have to overhaul operations to incorporate robots into workflows, streamlining the development of climate-adaptive structures.
Making buildings climate-adaptive without lengthening timelines will lower costs, increasing their accessibility.
Today, the industry has met just 25 per cent of the demand for low-carbon commercial spaces in major cities across the United States.
Due to low competition, the landlords of green-certified, class A offices charge an average rent premium of 7.1 per cent, hindering adoption.
Workers can meet future environmental needs today
Sector leaders should consider everything from material selection to utility connections.
Whether they utilise green roofs, improve insulation or experiment with new construction materials, their focus should be on resilience by design.
This way, they can ensure their structures can withstand future environmental needs.
