International. Global revenue from green building materials is $5.8 billion in 2022 and is likely to more than fivefold to $29.2 billion in 2031 with a CAGR of 19.6%, according to a new report from Guidehouse Insights.
This report highlights the growth of low-carbon green building materials and catalogues the numerous techniques the construction industry is using to decarbonise.
Efforts to decarbonise construction and reduce embodied carbon involve many individual initiatives implemented along the construction value chain, which is still in the early stages of substantial reduction in carbon emissions. Reductions in embodied carbon, emissions associated with building construction, are starting to have a significant impact now and are expected to increase in the latter part of the decade.
"Unlike efforts to reduce operational carbon emissions that show a reduction in fuel and energy bills in a matter of months, reducing embodied carbon emissions involves applying accounting and engineering principles to estimate the impacts of past, present and future activities," says William Hughes, Research analyst director at Guidehouse Insights. "A growing number of participants in the construction value chain are embracing these efforts."
The planned higher impact efforts involve changes in building materials, such as cement, steel, aluminum, glass, and wood. The carbon emissions associated with the life cycles of these materials — mining, refining, processing and demolition — collectively produce roughly the same carbon emissions as all operational emissions from buildings, according to the report.
The report, Decarbonisation of Building Construction, examines the growth of low-carbon green building materials. It can be downloaded from the Guidehouse Insights website.
