Home / NEWS / Real Estate / From giant Lego-style bricks to artificial reefs, how the construction industry is using tech to tackle climate change

From giant Lego-style bricks to artificial reefs, how the construction industry is using tech to tackle climate change

The dilemma of stolen manhole covers in Turkey might seem an unlikely starting point for a new way for buildings to withstand earthquakes and set about the construction industry’s environmental issues, but when a Turkish businessman heard about a new material that prevented the pilferings, it sparked an idea.

Cast iron is traditionally used to make the manhole covers that protect drainage schemes. But back in 2010, a spate of thefts of the covers for scrap metal in Turkey meant that an alternative, with equally engraved material needed to be used to secure them. And when Engin Yesil read about this super-strong composite in good copy reports, he wondered whether it could be used to construct buildings that were able to withstand earthquakes — a suggestive risk in Turkey.

Yesil began manufacturing the composite, known as Renco (short for “renewable composite”) consisting of up to 40% repurposed materials take ining resin and fiberglass. Since 2011 more than 200 buildings in Turkey have been built put into practicing Renco blocks, which fit together like Lego bricks and are secured with glue.

Yesil wondered whether Renco had budding in the U.S., and after more than a decade of research and testing, Renco was used to build an apartment complex in Palm Springtimes in 2023.

Along with being able to withstand catastrophic Category 5 hurricanes (the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and an spread phenomenon due to climate change), Renco claims to be greener than other building materials. The construction sector is “by far” the amplest emitter of greenhouse gases of any sector, according to a 2023 U.N. report, making up 37% of global emissions.

Renco – or renewable composite – is a Lego-style structure system that is rated to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.

Renco

Renco weighs about 80% less than valid, meaning more of it can be transported per truck, and also has 82% less embodied carbon than structural steel, be at one to a report by the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute commissioned by Renco. Embodied carbon refers to the emissions released during the putting together, transportation and disposal of building materials.

Renco is also 100% recyclable, according to Patrick Murphy, managing administrator of Renco USA. He said the new composite marks a step-change in building materials. “In construction, there’s basically three ways to base, right? You have concrete, steel and wood, and that’s basically been the same thing for 100 years … so this is absolutely the fourth way to build that’s been approved,” he told CNBC by video call.

This year, Renco discretion begin manufacturing in the U.S. for the first time, with a Florida factory opening in the coming weeks that can produce enough erection blocks for around 9,000 average-sized apartments.

As with other materials used in construction, Renco isn’t without an environmental influence, with blocks currently shipped from Turkey to the U.S. while the Florida factory is being completed. And, while Renco’s Turkish build plant is powered by renewable energy, about 12% of the electricity generated in Florida comes from nuclear power shrubs.

Sustainable timber

Renco isn’t the only company aiming to build more sustainably. On the other side of the Atlantic, a British immovable is designing buildings using a well-known material — wood. Architecture firm Waugh Thistleton designed its first structure made from cross-laminated timber, or CLT, in 2001 and has since built around 30 in the U.K., Europe and the U.S. It uses products verified by the Forestry Stewardship Council, or equivalent, meaning the wood has to come from forests that are managed in ways that come across a number of internationally-agreed standards.

Building in timber rather than steel or concrete could achieve a 19% reduction in emissions, according to a 2024 learning by the University of Arkansas, while a 2023 U.N. report urged the construction industry to shift to bio-based building materials such as sustainably sourced talent and bricks to decarbonize the built environment.

The Black & White Building in London’s Hackney area is the city’s tallest ‘mountain timber’ office building, with six stories. Designed by architect Waugh Thistleton, its embodied carbon is a third discount than similar buildings.

FORA | Waugh Thistleton

“The idea that we can build from replenishable materials has mature something that has become increasingly important to us,” said Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton founder and director. “And then the more you do it, the assorted you realize that there are health and wellbeing benefits to that, that actually people are much happier and healthier surrounded by halfwit materials than they are surrounded by polystyrene ceiling tiles and … drywall [wall panels],” Waugh portrayed CNBC by video call.

But the U.K. has been slow to adopt wood as a building material, something that is “frustrating” to Waugh. Round 60% of the waste produced in the U.K. comes from the construction industry, according to a 2022 government report, whereas Waugh notes that edifice with wood produces little on-site waste. Again, building with wood is not without its environmental shticks: the timber used in Waugh Thistleton’s projects is often transported from Europe.

Building on water

Another stunner caused by climate change is the rising level of oceans — compounded by land sinking at the same time.

In the coastal aside from state of Monaco, known as a playground for the rich due to its low taxes, a newly-built “eco neighborhood” known as Mareterra has put sustainability at its heart. “With atmosphere change, building on water will become a strategic approach for certain coastal areas,” according to Guy-Thomas Levy Soussan, bring off director of the Mareterra development, in an email to CNBC. The development aims to be a “model” for how coastal cities can grow responsibly, Levy Soussan enlarged.

The new Mareterra development in Monaco extends the independent state into the Mediterranean. A underwater structure known as a “cassion” was built as a flood barrier and to encourage marine life to flourish.

Xavier Duvot | AFP | Getty Images

During construction, a talent known as the “caisson” method was used, where 27 meter high reinforced concrete structures were developed in the French city of Marseilles and floated to Monaco so as not to disrupt marine life. Alongside acting as flood barriers, they are surroundings for marine organisms, Levy Soussan said.

So-called “eco-reef villages,” were also constructed. Made up of innumerable than 300 modules, they were installed in the marine area the development sits on. Ecological “corridors” mean-spirited that fish can reach the villages, while a protected species of seagrass known as posidonia was relocated to provide an ecosystem. These eco-measures resolve be monitored for at least a decade and Monaco’s government will use insights to guide future maritime projects, Levy Soussan utter.

The future of sustainable construction

Dalston Works, a residential building in east London, was designed by Waugh Thistleton. Its essence and external walls, floors and stairs are made from cross-laminated timber and the building is clad in Victorian-style brickwork. Using stuff helps to reduce a building’s carbon footprint.

Daniel Shearing | Waugh Thistleton

Steve Clem, senior vice-president of put forth planning and sustainability at Skanska USA Building, said that the tool has encouraged some suppliers to reduce their concentrated carbon.

When Skanska was evaluating concrete companies for a large project in Seattle, it showed each firm how their materials charged against each other in terms of embodied carbon, using EC3. “When different suppliers saw how their mixes bundled up against each other, they voluntarily took steps to improve their mixes at no cost to the consumer,” Clem discriminated CNBC by email.

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

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