Industry fights climate change with wood, Lego-style bricks, new materials

The problem of stolen hatches in Turkey may seem like an unlikely starting point for a new way to withstand earthquakes and solve the environmental problems of the construction industry, but when a Turkish businessman heard about a new material that prevents theft, an idea was born.

Cast iron is traditionally used to make hatches that protect drainage systems. But back in 2010, a wave of thefts of scrap metal covers in Turkey meant that an alternative material with the same strength needed to be used to secure them. And when Engin Yesil read about this high-strength composite in the news, he wondered if it could be used to build buildings capable of withstanding earthquakes – considerable risk in Turkey.

Yesil began producing a composite known as Renco (short for “renewable composite”), which consists of up to 40% recycled materials, including resin and fiberglass. Since 2011, more than 200 buildings in Turkey have been built using Renco blocks, which fit together like Lego bricks and are held together with glue.

Yesil wondered if Renco had potential in the US, and after more than a decade of research and testing, Renco was tapped to build an apartment complex in Palm Springs in 2023.

Along with the ability to withstand catastrophic Category 5 hurricanes (the highest rating in Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and a growing phenomenon due to climate change), Renco claims to be more environmentally friendly than other building materials. The construction sector is “by far” the largest emitter of greenhouse gases of any sector, according to a 2023 UN reportwhich accounts for 37% of global emissions.

Renco weighs about 80% less than concrete, meaning more can be transported per truckload, and has 82% less carbon than structural steel, the report said Athena Sustainable Materials Institute commissioned by Renco. Embodied carbon refers to emissions released during the production, transportation and disposal of construction materials.

Renco is also 100% recyclable, according to Patrick Murphy, head of Renco USA. He said the new composite marks a step change in construction materials. “In construction, there are basically three ways of building, right? You have concrete, steel and wood, and it’s basically been the same for 100 years … so it’s really the fourth construction method that’s been approved,” he told CNBC in a video call.

This year, Renco will start production in the US for the first time, and in the coming weeks a plant in Florida will open, which will be able to produce enough building blocks for about 9,000 average-sized apartments.

Like other materials used in construction, Renco is not without its environmental impact, with blocks currently being shipped from Turkey to the US while the Florida plant is being completed. And although Renco’s Turkish plant runs on renewable energy sources, about 12% electricity generated in Florida comes from nuclear power plants.

Building with wood, rather than steel or concrete, could cut emissions by 19%, according to 2024 estimates University of Arkansas studywhile a UN report for 2023 called on the construction industry to switch to bio-based building materials such as sustainably sourced wood and bricks to decarbonize the anthropogenic environment.

“The idea that we can build from renewable materials has become increasingly important to us,” said Andrew Waugh, founder and director of Waugh Thistleton. “And the more you do it, the more you realize the health and well-being benefits, that people are actually much happier and healthier surrounded by natural materials than they are surrounded by Styrofoam ceilings and … drywall (wall panels),” Waugh told CNBC. in a video call.

But Britain is slowly moving towards using wood as a building material, which “disappoints” Waugh. Around 60% of waste produced in the UK comes from the construction industry government report for 2022while Waugh notes that a wood building produces little waste on site. Again, building with wood is not without its environmental concerns: the wood used in Waugh Thistleton’s projects is often transported from Europe.

Another phenomenon caused by climate change rising ocean levels — is complicated by the simultaneous sinking of the earth.

In the coastal independent state of Monaco, known as a playground for the rich because of its low taxes, a newly built “eco-quarter” known as Mareterra has put sustainability at its core. “With climate change, building on water will become a strategic approach for certain coastal areas,” Guy-Thomas Levy Sousson, Mareterra’s managing director of development, told CNBC in an email. The development aims to be a “model” for how coastal cities can grow responsibly, Levy Susan added.

The construction used a technique known as the “caisson” method, where reinforced concrete structures 27 meters high were built in the French city of Marseille and shipped to Monaco so as not to disturb marine life. In addition to acting as flood barriers, they are a habitat for marine organisms, Levy Susan said.

So-called “eco-reef villages” were also built. Consisting of more than 300 modules, they were installed in the offshore area where the development is located. Ecological ‘corridors’ mean fish can reach the villages, while a protected species of sea grass known as posidonia has been transplanted to ensure the ecosystem. These environmental measures will be monitored for at least a decade, and the Monaco government will use the information to guide future marine projects, Lévy Sousson said.

The UK Green Building Council called on the British government to go further in its environmental targets for new homes, while in Singapore, for example, the government added proposals to the mandatory energy improvement regime to include older buildings. It used to focus on new buildings or those that had been extensively renovated.

Murphy said the industry “will have to” reduce its emissions. “In many ways the industry has gone unnoticed, hasn’t it? People talk about airplanes and cars and cows, you know, a lot of other… emissions. A lot of people don’t understand how bad cement is and how bad the built environment is.’

Embodied carbon has been the focus of attention for US Environmental Protection Agency and construction company Skanska USA developed a tool known as EC3 to help construction projects quantify their emissions.

Steve Klemm, Skanska USA Building’s senior vice president of project planning and sustainability, said the tool has encouraged some suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint.

When Skanska evaluated specific companies for a large project in Seattle, it showed each firm how their materials compared to each other in terms of embodied carbon using EC3. “When various suppliers saw how their blends compared to each other, they voluntarily took steps to improve their blends at no cost to the consumer,” Clem told CNBC via email.

The vice-president has a positive outlook on the future. “The construction industry is doing more for sustainability now than at any time in history, or at least since the industrial revolution … My hope for the future is that sustainable construction is the norm and many more people have the opportunity to live, work and play in carbon-free buildings,” Clem said.