The violent storms, raging fires and huge floods experienced by many thousands of unfortunate people this year have added even greater urgency to the need to tackle climate change now. Buildings are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions; in the UK these equate to about 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint.

These emissions come from multiple sources, including heating our stock of older, badly insulated buildings and powering new offices and homes. A significant proportion of emissions are generated by the materials and processes used to construct new buildings and infrastructure, with cement and steel manufacture being particularly carbon-intensive.

The complex and fragmented nature of the construction industry, coupled with the fact that virtually every building is bespoke, militates against simple solutions to the problem. So we asked a wide range of industry experts for ideas that could help tackle this seemingly insurmountable problem.

Many of the responses (below are just the first in our series, more will follow) focused on what the government can do in terms of policy approaches, including mandatory energy audits every time someone gets a new kitchen, more funding for research, and investing more money into renewable energy schemes such as tidal power.

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