(HM02) Healthy Homes: Lessons Learned Eliminating Toxic Materials from Construction

Our built environment contributes 40% of global carbon emissions and consumes nearly one-third of the planet's final energy use. Part of this extraordinary carbon footprint can be attributed to the disjointed information exchange across design, procuring materials, and delivering projects. A lack of transparency across the supply chain promotes excessive waste, while miscommunication hinders on-demand procurement.

As a traditionally carbon-intensive sector, construction – particularly home-building – is historically one of the least innovative industries, from the age-old way we assemble buildings to our over-reliance on a limited selection of carbon-intensive materials. There are various promising solutions; offsite manufacturing centralizes production, while digitization creates a single digital "thread" with trusted partners that offer greener, healthier supply chains. However, design must start incorporating fewer carbon-heavy and harmful materials if we're to strive for carbon neutrality.

This is fundamentally a problem of what we source and how we source it. Common materials like steel, concrete, aluminum, and glass for use in building construction account for one-tenth of global CO2 emissions, while the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Red List identifies "worst in class" materials, chemicals, and known elements in construction that pose serious risks to human health and ecosystems. Relieving our dependence on toxic materials is tantamount to building more sustainably.

There is therefore an urgent need to place innovation at the heart of the materials science debate around the very composition of construction products. In this session, Modulous will explain the LBC Red List, the emerging ambition to phase out the production of environmentally unhealthy materials, how digital rules-based supply chains can root out harmful materials as well as flag emerging materials issues, and the methods available to incorporate novel, less carbon-heavy materials into homebuilding by way of a modular "kit of parts" concept and a regenerative design strategy.