Part of: Nature

Embodied Ecological Impacts

The impact of the materials we use in our built environment is not limited to carbon emissions. This knowledge hub explores the global ecological impacts of the building materials we use in the UK, and how to avoid harm and maximise nature-positivity.

We are in the middle of a global biodiversity crisis, with a 69% decline in global biodiversity populations since 1970. Biodiversity is increasingly being considered within the built environment, alongside the recognised need for green and healthy urban environments. However, worldwide only 1% of our planet’s surface area is used for buildings and infrastructure, so focusing on the site level alone will not be enough to tackle our global nature and biodiversity crisis.

The impacts of the construction industry reach beyond the footprints of our towns and cities and they extend well beyond country borders. In a world of globalised trade and supply chains, many negative impacts are transferred to sites and areas remote from the building site, such as deforestation, water scarcity, pollution, and even violent conflicts. These can be hard to identify in a fragmented, global industry that often lacks transparency.

We need to consider the full picture of the way we impact nature via the ways we do business. This includes ecological impacts as a result of material extraction and within our supply chains. This is what we call embodied ecological impacts.

Navigation

Embodied Ecological Impacts
Introduction
Overall Recommendations
Discover the Impact
Materials Map
Acknowledgments

Introduction & Context

What do we mean by Embodied Ecological Impacts?

Similar to embodied carbon, embodied ecological impacts are caused by the resource extraction and manufacturing process, such as the production and transportation of raw materials and the disposal of unused materials. These impacts occur offsite, mainly via materials extraction and the supply chain. Local, on-site impacts of the built environment on biodiversity are not included in this definition.

Ecological impacts refer to the effects of human activities on the natural environment, ecosystems, and biodiversity. These impacts can be both positive and negative, and they may be direct or indirect, depending on where you sit in the supply chain. The work presented here focuses mainly on negative and indirect ecological impacts.

Embodied Ecological Impacts and Carbon

The concept of embodied impacts is already well-established for carbon. As demonstrated above, we can address ecological impacts in a similar way, using a whole-life framework.

However, there are several key differences. Carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases are assessed using emissions of greenhouse gas emissions including carbon, whereas ecological impacts are more varied and complex to capture. Unlike carbon, which has the same impact globally, wherever it is released, ecological impacts are often specific to local environments, interconnected with other ecosystems, and therefore impossible to address universally.

UKGBC’s workstream on embodied ecological impacts

This is the first phase of UKGBC’s work on embodied ecological impacts. It aims to:

  • Raise awareness of global ecological impacts
  • Put nature loss firmly on the agenda for the built environment
  • Advocate for a holistic view of nature among built environment practitioners

This workstream shines a light on ecological impacts via our supply chain, focusing on common raw materials linked to the built environment. It aims to identify hot spots of ecological impacts in our supply chain as well as geographically.

This page is intended to be dynamic, with content being added as the conversation progresses. Please get in touch with us if you have information to contribute or think anything should be added.

Get in touch

The problem

The destruction of our natural environment continues to make headlines, largely driven by changes in how we use land and extract resources. If everyone lived like a resident of the UK, we would require the resource equivalent of 2.6 Earths, which is a model we can’t sustain. Our total material extraction has doubled since 2000. Given the constraints of finite resources, it’s imperative that we alter our approach to material consumption, reconsider the consequences of extraction, and ensure equitable global access to these resources. 

Currently, resource extraction is expected to increase. According to the OECD, many construction-related materials are forecast to double by 2060 under the business-as-usual scenario. Still, we continue to treat our resources as endless and keep extracting, using, and wasting them through a linear economy. Since absolute decoupling of ecological impacts from resource extraction is impossible, alternative ways of managing and distributing finite resources need to be explored. 

The built environment is the most resource-intense sector, whilst also providing many positive societal outcomes such as shelter, and social cohesion. Finding better ways to collectively decide how and where we prioritise resource use to ensure a good standard of living for all is key.  

For this, we need to shift from having predominantly negative ecological impacts towards cultivating positive impacts and relationships with nature and ecosystems. Staying within our planetary boundaries and shifting towards a circular economy will be fundamental to achieving this. 

Learn more about the Circular Economy & Nature

Understanding the problem

69 %

decline in global wildlife

populations since 1970.

Reference

50 %

of material extraction

due to the built environment.

Reference

62 %

of waste in the UK

from construction, demolition and excavation.

Reference

International Context

Efforts to protect nature and biodiversity globally are quickly rising up the international agenda. In December 2022, countries around the world came together to agree on the Global Biodiversity Framework, putting the world on a path to halt biodiversity loss and restore nature by 2050.

Living in harmony with nature

“By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.”

  1. Ecosystem and species conservation, restoration, integrity, connectivity
  2. Sustainable use of resources
  3. Equitable sharing of benefits
  4. Means of implementation including alignment of financial flows

23 targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030

> Reducing threats to biodiversity

> Meeting people’s needs

> Tools and solutions for implementation

Business Context

From a business perspective, the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) set out to support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes. Their recommendations for assessing and disclosing impacts and dependencies on nature strongly align with the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework and are expected to be adopted into national regulations over time.

Like the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) seeks to enable companies and financial institutions to better understand and disclose the potential impact of environmental issues on their business operations, value chains, and financial performance. However, the TNFD focuses specifically on nature-related risks and opportunities, including biodiversity loss, deforestation, pollution, and the sustainability of natural resources.

Similar to the Science-Based Targets initiative for carbon emissions reduction (SBTi), the SBTN initiative provides a framework for companies to develop meaningful and measurable targets for their impacts on nature. It allows companies to align their operations and activities with science-based practices that are essential for maintaining and restoring biodiversity and ecosystems. By setting science-based targets for nature, companies can contribute to the overall goal of halting the alarming decline in biodiversity and preserving the health and resilience of ecosystems worldwide

How does the built environment affect nature?

The impacts of the built environment can be looked at through on-site impacts and embodied impacts offsite. Here, we are focusing on the embodied impacts. The built environment impacts nature and biodiversity globally through many activities, some of which are outlined here:

Energy Transition

As part of our decarbonisation agenda, an energy transition is underway in the built environment. This is a crucial step towards minimising climate impacts and achieving net zero in our industry. However, this energy transition comes with its own embodied impacts that are important to address, such as those from solar PV panels and batteries. Rare earth materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt are crucial for battery performance and magnets, essential for technologies such as wind turbines or electric motors, but come with negative impacts on nature related to their mining.

Construction

The construction industry is the most resource-intensive sector of the world economy, being responsible for 50% of all extracted resources. Most construction activity is for new build development using virgin materials, with direct ecological impacts such as land use, and embodied impacts such as habitat destruction from quarrying aggregates. Meeting our society’s needs with sustainable levels and types of resource extraction is key for the sustainability of our industry.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure projects come with high impacts on-site as well as embodied impacts due to their size and material intensity. Moreover, linear infrastructure such as roads can fragment landscapes, hindering animal migration with potentially negative effects on biological diversity. Future infrastructure projects will need to be evaluated based on their necessity and positive impacts while ensuring resource use is sustainable.

Fit-out

In the UK market, the fit-out and furnishing of commercial properties is a highly demanding aspect of the industry, particularly in terms of resources. The nature of this sector is characterised by short lifespans and frequent turnover, resulting in excessive material consumption and the generation of substantial waste, causing ecological damage.

We need to move away from destructive and extractive practices in the built environment, building upon emerging concepts such as being nature-positive and regenerative. Crucially, we need to form a deeper understanding as an industry of what this means in practice. Assessing our impacts on nature and biodiversity holistically means getting familiar with the concept of embodied ecological impacts. 

Definitions

Some quick definitions that help explain what we’re going to be exploring.

Being nature-positive in line with the Global Goal for Nature is defined as halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 compared to a baseline of 2020.

More specifically, it centres around three time-bound goals: zero net loss of nature from 2020, net positive by 2030, and full recovery by 2050. The Nature Positive Initiative is currently driving alignment around the use of the term and is developing measurable outcomes to achieve its goals.

From a business perspective, nature-positive is not yet well defined.

As a global goal, nature-positivity provides a direction of travel. Currently, claiming to be regenerative as a business, or attributing this term to built assets, cannot be sufficiently backed up in all its complexity. Being nature-positive should therefore act as a guiding vision, rather than certification.

Being regenerative is about enabling social and ecological systems to maintain and improve their own health. This needs holistic systemic thinking and practices, with the goal of enabling natural and human systems to repair, thrive, adapt, and co-evolve.  

Currently, claiming to be regenerative as a business, or attributing this term to built assets, cannot be sufficiently evidenced due to the complex interconnectedness of ecosystems and global supply chains. Being regenerative should therefore act as a guiding vision, rather than certification.

Overall recommendations

Apart from the assessments of individual materials, there are several overarching recommendations, both on an organisational level as well as on a project level. These are a good starting point for a more holistic approach to nature and biodiversity for stakeholders in the built environment.  

Project Level

Use the resource use mitigation hierarchy to prioritise actions to drive down embodied ecological impacts.

Use the following hierarchy to choose a material: Prioritise best use of existing, prioritise reused materials, prioritise recycled/biobased materials, optimise design, regenerative or low-impact extraction and, finally, avoid materials. Learn more below.

Embrace the circular economy

Keep materials in the loop by maximising reuse, designing for disassembly and supporting the systemic shifts needed for this transition.
Learn more about UKGBC’s work on the circular economy

Engage with your supply chain

Embodied ecological impacts often lie upstream and out of an organisation’s direct control. Engaging with the supply chain is therefore crucial to gather information and data, and demand and enhance transparency.  

The Mitigation Hierarchy

1

Prioritise best use of existing assets.

Reuse, refurbish, and maintain existing assets to eliminate the need for new construction materials in the first place.
2

Prioritise reused materials and match availability.

Where maintaining or reusing an existing asset is not an option, reusing materials and products is the next best option.
3

Prioritise recycled and biobased materials and match availability.

The use of recycled materials is limited by the metabolism of the built environment and needs to be matched by renewal rates in both the technical cycle, via the availability of recycled material, and the biological cycle, via the regeneration rates of biogenic materials. Specifying recycled materials above the availability dictated by recycling or regrowth rates will not lead to better outcomes.
4

Optimise design.

Lower the amount of construction materials needed by design, for example through optimised structural design and simplified forms, and plan for future flexibility, recovery, and reuse.
5

Regenerative or low-impact material extraction.

Limit the extraction of materials to sites and processes that actively seek to minimise disturbance of existing ecosystems such as through maintaining habitats and ecological corridors, organising extraction windows and rates so as to enable ecosystems to recover, and restoring habitats and ecosystems where damage does occur.
6

Avoid Material

If all of the above mitigation measures are impossible, explore alternative materials and apply the hierarchy again.

Organisational Level

Embrace existing and emerging frameworks.

Get familiar with TNFD recommendations and SBTN assessment. More detailed information on how to measure, set, and disclose impacts can be found in SBTN’s Technical Guidance on target setting.
Read the technical guidance

Perform a materiality screening and value chain assessment

The information provided on this website provides some indications of impacts relevant to the built environment, namely via raw materials used in construction and sourcing locations. SBTN upstream activities require assessment of purchased goods and services.  

Set an organisational nature and biodiversity strategy.

Commitment from leadership is necessary to provide a structured path for the company to follow as it works toward its sustainability goals. The strategy should clearly outline specific targets and roadmaps, serving as a guiding framework for achieving measurable and impactful outcomes, providing accountability.

Discover the Impact

Materials included in this study

We have identified 5 raw materials to be analysed in greater detail below, including methods of extraction, key ecological impacts as well as solutions to the issues we are facing. These are commonly used raw materials in our industry and more materials will be added over time to build up a more complete picture.  

The provenance and impact of materials need to be evaluated based on where materials are extracted globally, and where the UK imports raw materials from. The following analysis will focus on the UK’s impact via materials, both inside and outside the country, based on the main locations that materials used in the UK are extracted from. However, one country’s impact is not independent from others, as resource limits are global and need to be addressed as such. A shift towards widespread adoption of the principles included in the resource use mitigation hierarchy must therefore be a priority. 

As a hub for information on ecological impacts, we intend to keep this page dynamic and collaborative, adding information over time, as well as different materials. If you want to share information or case studies with us, you will be able to do so using the buttons in the materials section, or at the end of this page.

Impact Rating

Material extraction for construction comes with various ecological impacts. Currently, quantifying the full extent these impacts is challenging due to data availability and scarcity of open disclosures. To align with SBTN guidance, this assessment adopts the impact categories biodiversity, climate, land, freshwater, and ocean.  Additionally, a category indicating impacts on human wellbeing has been added to complete the picture.  

The impact score for each impact category can range from zero (indicating no impact) to four (reflecting a very high impact). This score is influenced by the extraction methods and geographic source of the materials imported for use in the UK, as well as those produced within the UK. Therefore, the negative impact score associated with each material can be considered as a high-level approximation to the construction industry in the UK. 

Explore the Impact Rating Methodology here

About the Global Map

This map shows the main locations for material extraction where applicable, overlayed with biodiversity hotspots. This refers to global material extraction, independent of where the UK imports its resources from. Highlighted countries of extraction account for at least 50% for global supply of that resource.  

Each material as well as the biodiversity hotspots can be toggled on and off via the Filter button in the top right. Clicking on Learn more within the Filter section opens a page with more UK-specific in-depth information for each material, covering methods of extraction, key ecological impacts, as well as recommendations and links to further resources.  

Data is based on: US Geological Society (Iron, Aluminium)Luckeneder (2021) (Iron, Aluminium), Food and Agriculture organization of the UN (Timber), Mineral Products Association (Aggregates, Cement), Office for National Statistics (Aggregates, Cement), British Geological Survey (Aggregates, Cement)

Materials Map

Materials in this map

Aggregates

Globally, almost half (46%) of all primary aggregates are used to manufacture concrete and cement.…

Aluminium

Aluminium ore, or Bauxite, is the raw material used for the production of aluminium, which…

Cement

Cement is a fine powder made from a mixture of limestone, clay, and other minerals,…

Iron Ore

Iron ore is a natural mineral deposit that contains iron in various concentrations and is…

Timber

As a renewable material with the ability to sequester carbon, the interest in timber has…
Do you have information about any of these materials? Let us know!

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Further Resources

Acknowledgments

Resilience & Nature Programme Partners

With thanks to our programme partners who make our work on nature possible.

Project partners

With thanks to the following partners for making our Embodied Ecological Impacts work possible

Task Group

AtkinsRéalis – Kelly Gunnell 

Berkeley Group – Jessica Lewis 

Biodiversify – Mike Burgass 

BNP Paribas Real Estate – Donna Rourke 

Buro Happold – Alexandra Jonca 

Firstplanit – Ankita Dwivedi 

Greengage – Chris Moss 

Hilson Moran – Thomas Hall 

JLL – Amanda Skeldon 

Nature metrics – Pippa Howard 

Pollination Group – Gemma Cranston 

Ramboll – Samantha Deacon 

TfT – Rachel Cakebread 

The Carbon Trust – Tianqi Li 

UKGBC team  

Project Lead – Kai Liebetanz 

Authors – Kai Liebetanz, Clare Wilde, Macarena Cárdenas 

Editor – Smith Mordak  

Nature

Nature is in crisis.  The built environment has a critical role to play in protecting and restoring nature and moving to a regenerative model of development.
View more

Resource Use

In the UK, construction, demolition and excavation account for 60% of material use and waste generation. Meanwhile, prices of construction materials in the UK rose by 4.9% between 2017 and 2018. Adopting circular economy principles offers a €1.8 trillion opportunity to the EU between 2015 and 2030.   
View more