A study conducted by C40 Cities, Buro Happold, and the New Economics Foundation, with the support of the city of Oslo and the Laudes Foundation, analyzes the quantity, quality, and types of jobs generated by the transition to sustainable construction, comparing them with conventional practices. It also presents policies that cities can adopt to promote an inclusive workforce and drive the clean construction industry.
The scope of this study includes housing, offices, schools, hospitals, streets, and critical infrastructure. The study was carried out in the cities of Bogotá, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Oslo, and Seattle.
The weight of construction in the world
The construction sector is essential to the global economy and well-being, accounting for 11 to 13% of the world’s GDP and employing more than 273 million people. However, this sector also significantly contributes to the climate crisis, being responsible for 23% of global CO₂ emissions (UNEP, 2023), 30% of the natural resources extracted worldwide, and generating large volumes of waste and pollution (Yeheyis et al., 2013).
On the other hand, current practices do not adequately meet society’s needs, with over one billion people living in informal settlements and many cities facing housing and cost-of-living crises.
The importance of Sustainable Construction
The transition to sustainable construction is essential. This concept encompasses decarbonized, resource-efficient, resilient, and socially just practices, promoting healthier and more sustainable cities. The benefits include reducing emissions and waste, creating green and high-quality jobs, and developing accessible and sustainable infrastructure for all, especially for vulnerable groups. Cities play a key role in this process, from setting guidelines and implementing policies to encouraging innovation in the sector.
The study analyzed two possible scenarios for the construction sector between 2023 and 2050, identifying the potential for job creation, challenges, and opportunities in adopting sustainable practices.
In the Conventional Construction scenario, the sector continues to operate as it does today, with no significant changes: high carbon dioxide emissions; air, soil, and noise pollution; dependence on carbon-intensive materials such as steel and concrete; and reliance on traditional construction methods with low efficiency and high environmental impact.
In the Sustainable Construction scenario, key changes include optimizing building use (higher occupancy rates); regular maintenance to extend the lifespan of buildings; refurbishment and adaptive reuse of existing structures; industrialized and modular construction, reducing waste and construction time; the use of timber and low-carbon local materials; specification of sustainable products to lower environmental footprints; reuse of materials and structural components; and promoting deconstruction and dismantling to reduce demolition waste.
Job creation through the adoption of Sustainable Construction
The study concluded that adopting the Sustainable Construction model will generate more jobs than continuing with traditional construction methods. These jobs will primarily be in the areas of maintenance and repair, building rehabilitation, adaptive reuse of buildings, and timber construction. Additionally, most of these jobs will be within the physical boundaries of cities (around 70%), ensuring that local communities directly benefit from the transition to cleaner practices.
All cities experience a significant increase in the total number of construction jobs as a result of the shift to sustainable construction. However, the potential for job creation varies significantly between cities. For example, Mexico City would see a 193.1% increase in the number of jobs in the construction sector, while Seattle and London would experience smaller proportional increases due to their already significant efforts in green transition.
Thus, cities like Mexico City and Bogotá, which face high unemployment rates, can benefit greatly from the job creation driven by sustainable construction. In cities like London, where there is a shortage of construction workers, this transition offers an opportunity to revitalize the industry and ensure a more resilient and diverse labor market.
Workforce qualification
Training and upskilling will be required at different levels to prepare workers for new roles in the clean construction sector. In areas such as low-carbon concrete, deconstruction, maintenance, and rehabilitation, qualification efforts may be less intensive, as these sectors have a high degree of compatibility with skills already used in conventional construction.
However, for modern construction methods, such as modular and timber construction, which are more innovative practices, a greater effort in workforce qualification will be necessary to meet the sector’s evolving demands.
Improvement in working conditions and inclusion
The transition to clean construction also presents a crucial opportunity to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as to improve working conditions in the sector. However, as the study indicates, this will not happen automatically.
Many construction workers face precarious working conditions, low wages, and subcontracting practices. Construction sites often have high accident and fatality rates, and the workforce remains predominantly male, with low representation of women. Without deliberate actions, clean construction risks replicating the same adverse working conditions found in carbon-intensive construction.
Sustainable Construction: a just and green transition
A just and green transition in the construction sector will require active collaboration between industry, unions, and public sectors. Some of the levers include public procurement, management of municipal assets, urban development planning and control, taxation, building codes, and collaboration with the industry. By establishing regulations that set sustainability standards for buildings, and by adopting public procurement policies that prioritize low-carbon materials, cities can shape a regenerative and equitable future for their construction industries, ensuring that the transition to clean construction brings both environmental and social benefits.
Investments and benefits of Sustainable Construction
The transition to clean construction will require significant public and private investments in the short term, but according to the study, the benefits it brings more than justify these costs. The change is crucial for cities to reduce their carbon footprint and achieve climate goals.
The necessary investments from all parties involved in the Sustainable Construction scenario are higher than those in the Conventional Construction scenario (increasing by 2% to 127% for the cities analyzed). This is primarily due to the need for maintenance of existing buildings, which includes all buildings in the city. Maintenance will account for 67.5% of the average cost in Seattle and European cities, and 31.5% in Latin American cities. Although clean construction methods do not require more maintenance than carbon-intensive buildings, maintenance is needed to preserve and extend the lifespan of existing buildings, whereas, in the Conventional Construction scenario, this activity is often neglected.
While maintenance activities may be less costly than constructing new homes, the large volume of buildings that will require updates or repairs by 2050 demands a significant financial commitment. Regular maintenance is currently neglected, leading to financial and economic damages, health impacts, and potential loss of life due to increasing climate impacts on buildings. Examples of this include buildings with a higher risk of collapsing in situations such as floods and storms; and buildings that, due to greater exposure to urban heat, extreme temperatures, and humidity, result in significant health and financial impacts for their occupants.
Recommendations to facilitate the transition
C40 has identified a series of policy recommendations to facilitate the transition to the sustainable construction scenario, including:
- Update building codes to incorporate low-carbon materials.
- Invest in training to address the shortage of qualified human resources, in partnership with the private sector, unions, and educational institutions.
- Develop a long-term plan for sectoral transition, with a strategic vision and coordinated actions to ensure that clean construction becomes the norm.
These policies are crucial to ensure that the transition to clean construction is effective and brings lasting benefits to cities and their citizens.
