Decarbonizing the Built Environment
YSE scientists contributed to a new United Nations report that lays out an ambitious path to decarbonize the building sector, which is responsible for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Slashing emissions in this industry is key to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius set by the Paris Agreement and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.
Barbara Reck, senior research scientist at YSE, was one of the five lead authors of the report, which calls for a three-pronged approach — “Avoid, Shift, Improve” — to reduce embodied carbon emissions from the production and deployment of building materials such as cement, steel, aluminum, timber, and biomass. The report, “Building materials and the climate: Constructing a new future,” was published by the UN Environment Programme and the Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture under the lead of CEA Founding Director Anna Dyson.
Reck’s chapter focuses on decarbonizing six major conventional building materials, including concrete, steel, and aluminum, which are the three largest sources of embodied carbon in the building sector. “Decarbonizing building materials requires a combination of better production technologies, access to low-carbon energy, design for circularity, and material efficiency measures that include lifetime extension and higher efficiencies in manufacturing and recycling,” Reck says.
Yao contributed to a section on the potential of mass timber as an alternative to concrete and steel. Studies have found that substituting mass timber could reduce global CO2 emissions between 14-31%.
YSE PhD candidate Aishwarya Iyer worked on a case study on India, where the country’s building sector is expected to grow by 20 million square meters between 2015-2030. Iyer says it is important that a diversity of building types is considered when assessing material and energy demand in low- and middle-income countries. The case study authors recommend that the government enact and enforce policies that require companies to use recycled materials and an industry shift to bio-based materials, among other pathways to decarbonization.
October 25, 2023
Barbara Reck
Senior Research Scientist; Director Material Systems, Bauhaus Earth
More News in Brief
What makes extreme heat so deadly?
In the latest Rose Walk and Talk, YSE's Jennifer Marlon explains why extreme heat poses a growing threat to human health — and it’s not just about the temperature.
August 26, 2026
Jennifer Marlon
Senior Research Scientist, Lecturer, and Director of Data Science; Executive Director, Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions; Lecturer, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Anthony Leiserowitz Named American Psychological Association Fellow
Anthony Leiserowitz, professor of climate communication, has been elected an American Psychological Association Fellow, effective January 1, 2027. Fellow status is awarded to those who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of psychology.
Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, was recognized for his work on climate and environmental psychology, which has helped shape how the public and policymakers understand the human dimensions of the climate crisis.
“I’m so honored to be named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Environmental and conservation psychology are more important to solving our shared global challenges than ever before, and I’m just glad I’ve had the opportunity to help advance the field,” Leiserowitz said.
August 11, 2026
Anthony Leiserowitz
JoshAni-TomKat Professor of Climate Communication; Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC)
Satellites Can Track Amazon Forest Resilience — But Timing Matters
A new study led by Kexin Song, a postdoctoral associate at YSE, offers field-based evidence that satellite data can detect meaningful differences in how well Amazon forests recover from drought stress, rather than merely reflecting glitches caused by clouds, sensor quirks, or measurement timing. By cross-checking geospatial observations with physiological measurements from more than 342 trees representing 114 species, researchers confirmed that a satellite-derived resilience indicator capture real ecological signals. This finding strengthens the case for using satellites as early-warning tools for ecosystem transitions across hard-to-access regions such as the Amazon.
An important caveat that the study found, however, is that the observation timing must align with natural recovery rhythms. For instance sampling too frequently can hide recovery dynamics, but sampling too infrequently risks missing them. The study suggests that some earlier satellite-based resilience assessments warrant re-examination.
The paper, "Physiological fidelity of a satellite-derived forest resilience indicator in the Amazon," was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
July 21, 2026
