Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Asia has been urbanizing rapidly over the last decades. Moving from 0.3 billion urban dwellers in 1950s to 2.1 billion in 2015 and projected to reach 3.3 billion by 2050. At the same time, Asia is the world’s most climate change vulnerable continent and its cities are both major victims and contributors to this vulnerability. Indeed, Asian cities consume up to 80% of total energy supplied in the region and generate 75% of the region’s carbon emissions. Buildings account for over 1/3 of the global energy demand and are essentially built with conventional building materials such as concrete, steel, glass and brick, which have a very high embodied energy. The manufacturing of today’s conventional materials alone represents 25% of the current global energy demand and 20% of global CO2 emissions. There is a need to build fast to meet the housing need, however moving fast in the wrong direction can only address these needs in a very short run and at the expense of livability, sustainability, resilience, and economic competitiveness. In this context, Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEB) are a potential break-through that could lead Asian cities towards building sustainably. The present knowledge piece looks at selected examples of building with stabilized earth in Indian cities, combined with passive design techniques and circular economy principles. It demonstrates that such a combined approach decreases embodied energy while increasing affordability, livability, and social cohesion. It assesses their positive impact and benefits, and looks into elements that are required to upscale the experience.