Autorentext

Guillaume Habert is Professor of Sustainable Construction at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is an alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he completed a Master's degree in Earth, Atmosphere and Ocean sciences, and he holds a PhD in structural geology from the University of Toulouse (France), obtained in 2004. After his doctoral studies, he held research and teaching positions in France and Brazil before joining ETH Zurich, where he is Professor of Sustainable Construction in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. His work bridges materials science, environmental engineering, and architecture, with a strong focus on regenerative and low-carbon construction materials such as earth, stone, bio-based and recycled materials. Through his research, teaching, and close collaboration with industry and public stakeholders, he aims to transform the built environment by reducing embodied emissions, strengthening local material cycles, and reconnecting construction practices with territorial, social, and ecological contexts.

Verena Göswein was born and raised in Germany. She moved to Switzerland to complete her Bachelor's and Master's degree at ETH Zurich. As an invited student, she did her Master thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Afterwards she was a research assistant for one year at ETH's Chair of Sustainable Construction before moving to Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), at the University of Lisbon to do her PhD which she finished in 2020 with distinction and honour (summa cum laude). Since then, she has been sharing her time between practice and academia, implementing innovation into real World and identifying key bottlenecks to be addressed by further research. As an ESG manager for FREO Group, an international real estate investor, developer and asset manager, she supported many lighthouse construction projects where material demand was reduced while providing higher level of comfort. As a research associate at the Chair of Sustainable Construction, ETH Zurich, her interdisciplinary works draws on Industrial Ecology and Urban Metabolism to better understand environmental, social and economic consequences of material use across different spatial and temporal dynamics.

Klappentext

The built environment is a major source of greenhouse emissions, but this book aims to show that buildings shouldn't be seen only as a problem but rather as a steppingstone towards environmental solutions and better opportunities for people and planet. Research has shown that depending on the choice of materials, buildings can also improve the environment, increase the health quality of their inhabitants, and activate local and interconnected supply chains that can strengthen the local economy. The central argument of this book is that in order to achieve these goals, we have to change our material diet. Rather than using carbon intensive building materials we can and must use regenerative materials. This book shows that this is possible and that we have the required land, the economic power and the technical standards to do it.

Written for a broad audience of city planners, politicians and decision makers who have the power to transform the building sector, this book also targets investors and developers so that they can understand existing threats to their assets with a business-as-usual approach and find in this book solutions to allow new development to be future proofed towards climate change and health requirements. The solutions proposed will also be of interest to architects and engineers and equally for those who are living and owning buildings and can take an active role and demand the use of such regenerative building materials.

Inhalt

1. Defining Priorities 2. The Role of the Built Environment 3. Material Options in a Fair and Post-Carbon World 4. A New Material Diet 5. Positive Consequences of a Good Material Diet 6.Necessary Drivers and Processes of System Change 7. Conclusion