In The Netherlands, Built by Nature, a network and grant-making fund, has announced a global prize totaling $542,000 to recognize innovation and stimulate scalability in the use of biobased materials such as timber, bamboo, hemp, straw, algae, and fungi in construction.
The built environment generates up to 40% of the world’s greenhouse gases, and the increased use of sustainably sourced timber and renewable biobased materials offers a tangible, realistic solution to address climate change through decarbonization of our cities and buildings.
The Built by Nature Prize aims to identify and attract biobased construction material manufacturers and their innovations from all regions and help those producers overcome barriers to mainstream market entry, the firm said.
“Given the scale of urban development that is inevitable around the world over the coming decades, we simply cannot afford to build in the way we have in most of Europe for the last few hundred years. We urgently need to find innovative, renewable, low-carbon construction materials to radically reduce the embodied carbon footprint of new buildings and cities.” said to Paul King, Built by Nature CEO. “Since our launch in October of 2021, Built by Nature has seen a rapid expansion of our European network to over 1,300 individuals and organizations committed to a building industry transformation and now this Prize enables us to broaden our scope and deepen our impact on a global level.”
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