Outcome document – Opportunities and Gaps identified during the Construction Value Chain Consultations

Published on April 7, 2022

This report presents the main conclusions from a series of consultations with experts across the construction value chain, continuing the implementation of the work of the One Planet network and the International Resource Panel Task Group (OPN-IRP Task Group) requested in the frame of the 4^th United Nations Environment Assembly. It aims to catalyse science-based policy action on sustainable consumption and production through the implementation of the Value Chain Approach.

This jointly developed summary report will inform the collaborative development of science-based priorities for moving the construction sector towards sustainable consumption and production and circularity. The report brings together some of the main messages, opportunities, and gaps identified throughout the series of expert consultations workshops, in mapping real world action and ongoing initiatives against the strategic intervention points brought forward by the Construction value chain analysis. These intervention points are:

1) Focusing on the initial stages of the construction value chain. The financing stage and the planning and design stage, comprising mostly of governments, international organisations, financial institutions and major market players, largely shape activities along the value chain and influence to a high extend both production and consumption practices.

2) Leveraging the power of governments, who exert significant influence along construction value chain through their role as regulators of financial markets, the banking system, and tax system; as urban and territorial planners, and regulators of the construction sector; as well as investors in the construction sector through the public procurement of buildings and infrastructure.