The birds, the bees and the built environment  

This article explains why the natural environment is in critical need of protection and why the construction sector has a disproportionate role to play on both the building site and beyond.  

How Biodiversity serves Humanity

Animals, plants and earth itself all have an inherent value. Unfortunately, this existential fact does not guarantee freedom from exploitation.

The benefits to human well-being have been neatly categorised by the UN-sponsored Millennium Ecosystem Assessment into four ecosystem services.

Provisioning services: Some of nature’s “assets” have a quantifiable value, e.g. coveted Australian coal, Norwegian salmon, Costa Rican coffee, African diamonds, and a Christmas tree in December. Nature itself, however, does not get a slice of this financial pie.

Regulation services: Accessible drinking water, carbon captured by trees, floods averted by beavers and food pollinated by bees. These natural processes make ecosystems resilient to change.

Cultural Services: Natural and man-made parks and recreational areas facilitate the development of cultural and spiritual communities, not to mention psychological well-being. 

Supporting services: The foundational services upon which all other services depend. Consider photosynthesis, soil and water cycling. 

Reliance on nature extends even further. All the way, in fact, to the bottom line.

Construction’s Dependence - and Impact - on Nature

The construction sector is particularly dependent upon nature’s provisions. The industry consumes 50% of all extracted raw materials, and has therefore been disproportionately responsible for its destruction. To date, it is estimated that the construction industry:

• directly impacts almost 1/3 of threatened and near-threatened species

•  generates 33-50% of the world’s solid waste

• threatens 5,000 species of trees with extinction

From forests cleared for timber to wetlands drained for sand mining, the impacts ripple across the value chain. Key pressure points include:

Upstream

• Raw material extraction

• Land-use change (deforestation, habitat fragmentation)

• Logistics and energy use

• Labour and social equity impacts in biodiversity-rich but governance-poor regions

Downstream

• Construction waste and pollution

• Urban sprawl and ecological fragmentation

• Reconstruction, renovation, and end-of-life design choice

And the impact of the value chain the planet?

• Transformation of 70% of land surfaces

• Using 3/4 of freshwater resources

• 35% decline in natural global wetland coverage since 1970

• 73% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970

By 2030, urban land cover is expected to increase by 1.2 million km2. By 2050, the built environment is expected to double to accommodate an urban population of 7 billion. 

What will this expansion mean for biodiversity? And how will biodiversity’s decline affect the built environment? Much remains to be seen, but the latest UN reports and projections are cause for universal concern.     

Planetary Boundaries and Biodiversity’s tolerance

In 2023 scientists confirmed that humanity had pushed the earth beyond six of its nine planetary boundaries. 

“Planetary Boundaries are the safe limits for human pressure on the nine critical processes which together maintain a stable and resilient Earth.”