Renovations, sustainable building materials can support Europe's green transition

The EEA report "Tackling the environmental and climate footprint of buildings" assesses the current state of Europe's building stock and explores what is needed to make European buildings more sustainable. Renovating existing buildings using sustainable materials while improving resilience to climate change and working with nature are key. The report also examines what policy measures are needed to achieve this goal by 2050.

More than 30 % of the EU's environmental footprint comes from buildings, making them the sector with the largest environmental impact. Approximately one third of the Union's material consumption goes to the construction industry. The use of buildings represents 42 % of total energy consumption and 35 % of greenhouse gas emissions. The decommissioning of buildings leads to the largest mass flow of waste in the EU. Although the recycling rate of demolition waste is high, it mainly results in low value, the EEA report says. (More on eea.europa.eu)