Sustainable building materials: the materials of the future
A key to decarbonising construction
The construction industry accounts for more than one-third of global CO2 emissions. Anyone seeking to reduce emissions from construction must start with building materials. This is because a large portion of a building’s environmental and climate impacts arises as early as the extraction of raw materials, the manufacturing of materials, and their transport to the construction site.
That is why sustainable building materials are a key lever on our path toward decarbonising construction. They help us use resources more efficiently, avoid emissions, and keep materials in circulation for as long as possible. For STRABAG, sustainable building materials are therefore much more than just individual products: they are a crucial building block for the transformation of the entire construction industry.
What are sustainable building materials?
Sustainable building materials are those that conserve resources, reduce emissions, take social responsibility into account throughout the value chain and make buildings more sustainable over their entire life cycle. A building material is therefore considered sustainable above all when, in addition to its production and use, its disposals and recycling are also taken into account.
Ideally, a sustainable building material should meet several of the following criteria:
- available locally
- not harmful to health
- biotic and quickly renewable
- energy efficient to produce
- long service life
- reusable, recyclable
At STRABAG, we already rely on low-emission building materials in many areas, such as through the use of low-carbon concrete and steel or wood.
Not just a traditional building material: Renewable raw materials are an essential part of the modern construction industry’s portfolio
Biotic renewable resources – the building material revival
Natural resources that grow back have a decisive advantage over non-renewable ones: they bind CO2 during their growth and release fewer greenhouse gases during production.
As a (by-)product of agriculture and forestry, renewable biotic resources can also be used outside the food and feed sector. In this way, waste products are often given a new lease of life.
Biotic resources have a long tradition in construction. Half-timbered houses, for example, made of wood, mud and straw. Today, the construction industry is starting to rediscover these materials. Being sustainable, these materials are an essential building block for a climate-friendly construction industry.
The list of renewable biotic resources is long. First and foremost, there’s wood, which is already being used in a variety of ways. Then there are materials such as straw, corn, reeds, sugar beet and hemp, or biochar as an additive, which show that these materials have the potential to become a genuine alternative.
At STRABAG, we see renewable raw materials as a key growth area for the future. With the acquisition of Naporo Klima Dämmstoff GmbH in 2024, we expanded our portfolio to include sustainable insulation materials made from hemp and flax, marketed through STRABAG's building materials subsidiary roxit. By leveraging innovative production technologies, we continue to broaden our range of products based on renewable raw materials. In doing so, roxit combines in-house expertise, continuous technological advancement and strong partnerships to realise the opportunities offered by this promising market.
What are the advantages of renewable biotic resources?
Ecological building materials can be used to replace synthetic and chemical substances, which consume a lot of resources in their production and are often harmful to our health. With their beneficial properties, renewable biotic resources are used, for example, in insulation materials, in panel products such as formwork, in binders, and in plaster.
