With construction workers returning to work after lockdowns halted all but the most essential building for months in many parts of the world, we should all think about how the industry can and should exist more sustainably.

Human ingenuity has brought us from the simplest Bronze Age constructions to towering feats like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, but we now need to think urgently about how the buildings where we work and live impact the world around them.

It is no secret that the construction industry of today has a huge environmental impact. It is only in recent years that its environmental footprint has become a priority. For centuries, innovation within the construction industry simply followed a cycle of better tools, leading to access to stronger or cheaper materials, and fewer workers being needed.

The construction industry is affected by many trends, many of which, such as urbanisation, may themselves slow down or otherwise change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that, right now, climate change is the greatest driver of all and will remain so for years.

Yet a new wave of innovation means that the construction industry may finally be moving with a more sustainable tide.

After all, construction can also be part of the answer to the climate change question. Now that the environmental toll of its most commonly used materials, such as steel and cement, is increasingly under scrutiny and the workforce is getting older and fewer in number, the industry must look for new solutions that can make it more sustainable, productive and resilient to climate change.

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