didn’t invent ultra-white paint, screening, or plaster. These are basic materials, yet scaling such materials is crucial to addressing the qualitative housing deficit. Some might argue that this isn’t really innovation – and I’m okay with that. What my team has done is use ingenuity to figure out how to combine these existing materials in the most effective way. We’ve brought together the right technologies, materials, and designs to create affordable, accessible, and sustainable solutions for small contractors and the communities we care about. We didn’t create new things, but we made them work together in a new way. And to me, that’s the real potential for scaling impact. In your opinion, which innovative approaches to sustainable construction have had the most significant impact and transformative effects? C. M.O.: There have been significant innovations in building design in recent years. Starting with materials, an area in which remarkable progress has been made in creating more sustainable options. Research and development have also led to the optimization of resources used in both the products themselves and their manufacturing processes – especially energy, water. There is also a growing demand for environmental product declarations (EPDs) to ensure materials are safe throughout their life cycle –from installation to operation and even demolition. With regard to construction processes, major improvements have been made to reduce waste and enhance recycling efforts. For example, tracking water usage during construction – a practice not commonly done in the past – is now becoming more widespread, as companies recognize its importance. When it comes to building design, modern life cycle assessments are gaining traction. Concepts such as modular construction make it easier to repurpose building parts, ensuring their continued value. Buildings designed with resilience in mind, i.e. those that can be easily rebuilt or adapted after a disaster, are becoming increasingly common. This makes it possible to respond more quickly and flexibly to challenges. All these innovations are helping to transform our approach to construction, making it more sustainable and adaptable. R. P.: Creating pathways for low-income households to access existing innovative, high-quality construction solutions is a crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect to transforming the sustainable construction market. Changes in housing finance policy and including housing explicitly in green taxonomies are two approaches to this. Supporting financial institutions to access long-term capital and develop housing-focused loan products is also crucial. One of Habitat’s biggest successes in this area has 09
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