It’s weird, isn’t it? For decades – centuries even – the demolition and construction industry has shaped the built environment. But now, in 2025, the tables have turned. The demolition and construction industry is being shaped by the environment.
The need to safeguard and protect the planet is the single, most powerful force driving the sector. That desire has already given us electric machines, even if we have been slow to adopt them.
That same desire has also shifted us from a build, demolish, build cycle to a build, refurbish, refit and only demolish if absolutely necessary cycle.
It has forced us to develop homes and buildings that are more energy and thermally efficient than anything we could have previously imagined.
It has pushed us to develop systems to monitor and manage equipment to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of every last litre of fuel.
It has forced us to reconsider what we once viewed as waste; and how it might be repurposed, recycled and resold.
Stewardship of the environment and the planet is now the starting point of every construction project; it is the benchmark that must be achieved throughout the construction; and it is the standard by which the finished structure will be judged, managed and maintained.
All of that has happened in a relatively short space of time. That is not an evolution. We have each lived through a revolution. And that revolution is far from over.
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