As the 2024 UNEP Gap Report illustrates, the world is moving farther off track from the targets of the Paris Agreement. All sectors, including buildings and construction, need to rapidly transform our approach to climate action, but how? One dramatically underutilized tactic is culture. Climate action responses have been dominated by scientific and technological solutions; and yet, it becomes ever more clear that we cannot mobilize the all-of-society response needed to address the climate emergency without engaging people’s beliefs, customs, and sense of place in the world. 

Buildings, and especially existing and heritage buildings, are a unique opportunity for climate action because they hold both technical and cultural solutions. Often perceived as liabilities in the face of climate change, these structures are, in fact, vital to achieving climate targets.  

Existing buildings offer tremendous decarbonization potential. Reuse can mitigate current operational emissions through energy efficiency and fuel switching, reduce embodied emissions by 50%-75% compared to new construction by avoiding the demand for new materials, and improve resilience toward climate vulnerabilities. Additionally, the carbon benefits of reuse are typically realized in the near term, which is especially important given the increasing time value of carbon.  

However, the value of existing buildings and built heritage in climate action goes well beyond carbon mitigation. Among many co-benefits, built buildings: 

• Hold knowledge of pre-industrial construction materials that are often low-carbon, repairable, and resilient
• Demonstrate passive design principles that focus on human comfort while minimizing the need for active mechanical systems
• Teach about the potential to use less energy by focusing on the way we use and maintain buildings, not just the way we construct them
• Connect people with our communities and our histories and inspire us to imagine what a resilient and just future can look like. 

All the multi-faceted environmental and cultural value embodied within existing buildings will be needed to radically scale and accelerate climate action for both new construction and the existing built environment. As Climate Heritage Network co-founder Andrew Potts eloquently said, “No society…can achieve systems transitions on a nearly unprecedented scale at that speed without attention to the cultural dimensions of these shifts and without capturing the hearts and minds of residents.” Buildings have a massive role to play, and leveraging their cultural capacity further amplifies their potential to positively shape a more just, resilient, and carbon positive future.