Industrial transitionsCompleted

Industrial ecology for construction: natural materials and sector roadmaps

The lab's first body of work, 2022 to 2025. Roadmaps that move construction from carbon-intensive synthetic products toward industrial-ecology pathways, and evidence that brings natural and under-represented materials into public decarbonization roadmaps.

Project facts

ProgrammeIndustrial transitions
StatusCompleted What the status labels mean
MethodsIndustrial ecology · Environmental accounting and LCA
ScaleSector
GeographyGlobal; the work began in the EU
Period2022 to 2025

The question

How can construction move from carbon-intensive synthetic products to industrial-ecology pathways that favour natural and under-represented materials, and how can those materials enter public decarbonization roadmaps?

What the figures leave out

Public roadmaps and purchasing rules are built around the materials that are already measured. Natural materials with a smaller footprint can be left out simply because the evidence on them has not been assembled in the form those roadmaps require.

Approach

We applied industrial ecology to building design and supply: tracing material flows, comparing materials on their environmental accounts and drafting sector roadmaps. For under-represented material industries, we assembled the peer-reviewed evidence that public roadmaps and taxonomy criteria require.

MATERIAL FLOWS · ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTSCarbon-intensivesynthetic productsALREADY MEASURED: IN THE ROADMAPSNatural and under-represented materialsPEER-REVIEWED EVIDENCE, ASSEMBLEDWITHOUT IT: LEFT OUT OF PUBLIC ROADMAPSSector roadmapNATIONAL AND EU ROADMAPSTAXONOMY CRITERIAPURCHASING RULES MATERIAL FLOWS · ACCOUNTSCarbon-intensivesynthetic productsNatural, under-representedALREADYMEASUREDEVIDENCE,ASSEMBLEDWITHOUT IT:LEFT OUTSector roadmapNATIONAL AND EU ROADMAPSTAXONOMY CRITERIAPURCHASING RULES
FIG. 1 · METHOD SCHEMATIC · NO VALUES · Diagram of two material pathways for construction feeding into a sector roadmap.STATUS · COMPLETED

Where it stands

Completed

Completed, 2022 to 2025. This work began as a research initiative within the Engineering Division of Bouygues Immobilier (see the lab's history) and continued after the lab became independent in 2025.

The decision it informs

The material choices of developers and contractors, and the inclusion of natural materials, such as structural stone, in national and EU roadmaps and taxonomy criteria.

INSTRUMENTS · Sector roadmaps; evidence for inclusion in public roadmaps.

What the work required

  • Industrial ecology applied to the construction sector
  • Environmental accounting of construction materials
  • Advocacy grounded in peer-reviewed evidence for under-represented material industries

Builds on

None yet

Working on construction materials or a sector roadmap?

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