By entering your email above you are consenting to receive periodic updates from The Possible.
Three teams come up with solutions for greening essential — but not necessarily attractive — infrastructure
High-containment labs are among the world’s most secure buildings. Three teams take on the challenge of making them into smarter workplaces
We can’t build a net-zero world without using steel and concrete, and these industries are relying on the same limited pool of green resources as many others to decarbonize. In this series, The Possible explores the tough choices ahead
As things stand, almost all decarbonization roads eventually lead to CCUS technology. But there are currently fewer than 30 plants operational worldwide. So how do we get from here to net-zero?
We could — and should — grow more trees. But that won’t be anywhere near enough to avert the climate crisis. We need to look further than nature-based offsets, and perhaps more closely at forests themselves
Hydrogen could help many of the world’s most carbon-intensive processes to reach net-zero — just as long as we can decarbonize the production of hydrogen itself
There’s no getting round it: to decarbonize the world’s power supply, we are going to have to “spend” a lot of carbon in the process. But there are ways we can reduce the size of the bill
The production of cement and steel requires huge amounts of energy. We can’t do without them, but can they ever be zero-carbon?
Additive architecture has a mixed history, and pods are not exactly suited to creating open spaces, but plug-in buildings may offer other advantages
Heritage buildings are often masters of reinvention — what can today’s designers learn from them?
Different parts of a building evolve at different speeds, so it makes sense to keep them separate
An adaptable overlay of smart modes could help buildings to remain useful for longer
More than ever, we need buildings that can bend to whatever the future brings. But flexibility itself has always been a malleable concept. Can it be pinned down?
Data is the most powerful weapon we have against future crises
The pandemic poses new challenges and some very big questions
How we can optimize the environment to give employees the normalcy they are seeking, while implementing new policies and procedures?
The fusion of building tech, smartphones and wearables could make the post-pandemic workplace not just possible, but much, much better
Digital technologies can enable healthier, safer, more efficient buildings – and leverage assets that owners may not realize they have
Designing for wellbeing supports infection control now, but also resilience to future epidemics, writes building wellness specialist Meike Borchers
Vertical transportation is what makes multi-storey buildings possible. So what happens when enclosed spaces, push buttons and efficiency become the problem rather than the solution?
The health and safety landscape has changed completely for businesses, writes safety specialist Doug Crann
Strategies that will improve resilience in offices, and those that won’t
Safety and reassurance will be paramount when we eventually return to work
Three engineers offer solutions to a developer’s challenge
The process of defining and calculating embodied carbon is complex, occasionally contradictory and constantly evolving
We need to completely rethink the way we use structural materials, argues Cambridge engineering expert Julian Allwood
Can there be good, sustainable reasons to specify cement-based structures?
The embodied carbon of materials is a hard concept to sell — and an even harder one to define and measure. But one thing is certain: this unseen footprint needs to fall
How do we find out what state a building is in without disrupting the existing tenants?
Trees and hedges can mitigate pollution … but also exacerbate it
Can building materials and biotech help to suck pollution from the air?
Air pollution kills more than 4 million people every year. How do we stop our towns and cities from choking?
Shipping and cruise industries pose a variety of threats