Holcim Foundation Shifts Focus to Cities as Sustainable Construction Enters Scale-Up Phase

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction is moving into a new phase focused on scaling sustainable construction in cities, as the built environment faces rising pressure to reduce emissions, manage climate risks and meet growing demand for urban infrastructure.

Founded in 2003, the Foundation has spent more than two decades promoting sustainable construction through international awards, research, events and publications. According to Sustainability Magazine, the organization has helped shape how architects, engineers and urban planners define sustainable construction, moving the conversation beyond energy efficiency alone to include materials, governance, cultural identity, community participation and resilience.

The shift comes at a critical moment for the sector. Buildings and construction account for around 37% of global CO₂ emissions and nearly 50% of global material extraction, according to the latest Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction from UNEP and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. The same report notes that the sector represents 11% to 13% of global GDP and employs about 9% of the global workforce, underlining both its climate impact and its economic importance.

From Design Recognition to Urban Implementation

The Holcim Foundation Awards have been central to the organisation’s influence. Over eight competition cycles across five world regions, more than 81,000 participants from 166 countries submitted projects, with 260 independent experts evaluating entries and 362 winning projects recognised.

Unlike many built environment awards, the programme has historically focused on projects at late-stage design rather than only completed buildings. This means the awards often supported projects when teams were seeking funding, approvals or wider industry recognition. That approach gave the Foundation a role not only in celebrating design quality, but also in helping credible low-carbon and socially responsive ideas move closer to delivery.

The winning projects have covered a wide range of building and infrastructure types. Examples cited by Holcim include circular construction using reclaimed materials in Winterthur, Switzerland, the transformation of neglected water reservoirs into public space in Medellín, Colombia, and the redevelopment of a 113,000-square-metre former prison in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using passive cooling and local craft techniques.

These examples reflect a broader change in the sector. Sustainable construction is no longer limited to operational energy performance. It increasingly includes embodied carbon, material reuse, local supply chains, passive design, adaptation to heat and flooding, and the social value of buildings and public spaces.

Why Cities Are Now the Priority

The Foundation’s renewed strategy focuses on cities because they concentrate both climate risks and opportunities for emissions reduction. Urban areas are where demand for housing, transport, schools, healthcare facilities and public infrastructure is growing fastest. They are also where climate impacts such as heatwaves, flooding and water stress can affect large populations and critical assets.

The Foundation says its current vision is to influence how cities are built, renewed and cared for, with an emphasis on responsible urban development and placemaking that links buildings, infrastructure and public space. Its mission now centres on supporting “citymakers” who can translate integrated urban thinking into practical impact.

A key part of this strategy is a partnership with C40 Cities through the Reinventing Cities initiative. The collaboration is designed to connect city governments, the private sector and younger design professionals around low-carbon and climate-resilient urban development. Current competitions invite teams to reimagine underused urban sites, while a student-focused version is challenging participants in cities including Lagos, Barcelona and Jakarta to design greener and more resilient neighbourhoods.

For cities, this model has practical relevance. Many urban climate strategies fail not because of a lack of ambition, but because projects struggle to move from concept to implementation. Design competitions can help generate ideas, but their impact depends on whether they connect with landowners, planners, investors, procurement teams and communities. By aligning competitions with city-led redevelopment opportunities, the Foundation is attempting to close that gap.

Implications for Construction and Net-Zero Strategies

For construction companies, developers and public authorities, the Foundation’s direction highlights several priorities that are becoming more important in net-zero planning.

First, embodied carbon is becoming a central issue. As buildings become more energy-efficient in operation, the emissions associated with cement, steel, glass, insulation, and other materials account for a larger share of whole-life carbon. This is especially relevant for fast-growing cities, where today’s building choices will shape emissions profiles for decades.

Second, circular construction is moving from niche practice to a more strategic consideration. Projects that reuse existing structures, recover materials, adapt underused sites, or design for disassembly can reduce waste and lower demand for virgin resources. This matters because buildings and construction are among the largest users of raw materials globally.

Third, resilience is now inseparable from sustainability. Flood-prone schools, heat-resilient public spaces, water-sensitive neighbourhoods and passive cooling strategies are not only environmental measures. They are also risk-management tools for governments, insurers, investors and communities.

Fourth, the sector needs more integrated governance. Low-carbon construction requires coordination across architects, engineers, developers, city officials, financiers, material suppliers and residents. The Foundation’s emphasis on citymaking reflects the reality that sustainable construction is rarely achieved through design decisions alone.

A Sector Under Pressure to Move Faster

UNEP’s latest assessment shows some progress, including an 8.5% reduction in global building energy intensity and a near tripling of green building certifications over the past decade. However, it also warns that investment in energy efficiency must more than double to US$5.9 trillion by 2030 to keep climate goals within reach.

Against this backdrop, the Holcim Foundation’s move from defining sustainable construction to scaling it in cities reflects a wider industry challenge. The sector has many proven tools, including passive design, low-carbon materials, adaptive reuse, efficient systems and nature-based solutions. The harder task is deploying them at the speed and scale required by climate targets, urban growth and infrastructure demand.

The Foundation’s next phase will therefore be judged less by the number of ideas it identifies and more by how effectively those ideas influence real projects, procurement models and city development strategies. For stakeholders in construction, real estate and urban policy, the message is clear: sustainable construction is no longer a specialist design category. It is becoming a core requirement for resilient, investable and climate-aligned urban development.

Source: sustainabilitymag.com