Trends in Sustainable Solutions for the Built Environment - Reflecting on 2023

This report summarises a range of solution trends that UKGBC has seen over the course of 2023, also providing context on their use and driving forces in the UK market.

Climate Change Adaptation Climate Change Mitigation Health, Wellbeing and Social Value Deep Dive

Written by UKGBC

Achieving UKGBC’s vision for a sustainable built environment requires our industry to more widely and rapidly implement the innovative solutions available to us. Keeping up with the latest developments in sustainable innovation can be challenging, but UKGBC is continually sourcing and profiling impactful solutions, talking to both innovators and the industry adopting them to understand their impacts.

In this report we highlight some notable trends in sustainable solutions that we saw across the built environment over 2023, also providing context on their use and driving forces in the UK market.

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Incentivising and enabling ESG outcomes

Climate risk, resilience, and adaptation

Nature and biodiversity

Embodied carbon

Circularity and waste

Innovative building materials

Carbon offsetting

Renewable energy

Retrofit

Smart buildings, optimisation, and operational efficiency

It is encouraging to see that opportunity for innovation remained strong across the built environment in 2023, against a challenging economic and political background. As we move into 2024 and beyond, UKGBC will continue to work with members to help raise awareness and adoption of the most impactful solutions and to champion a systems-thinking approach towards their implementation. If you know of any innovative solutions or start-ups doing important work to improve the sustainability of the built environment, please encourage them to submit their solution to UKGBC’s Solutions Library.

If you have any questions or comments about this report please contact innovation@ukgbc.org.

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Please note that UKGBC does not formally endorse any of the solutions presented in this report. It is intended as a signpost and source of inspiration for built environment stakeholders, who should always carry out their own due diligence before adoption. While this is a summary of some of the notable solutions UKGBC has seen, there are many other solutions available which are not mentioned.

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