Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sostenibilidad

Just another web-blogs Sites site

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agriculture and Food Security
    • Climate change
    • Ecosystems and Biodiversity
    • Environmental and Social Safeguards
    • Infrastructure and Sustainable Landscapes
    • Institutionality
    • Responsible Production and Consumption
  • Authors
  • English

3 Ways to Decarbonize a Resilient Building in the Caribbean

February 7, 2024 por Livia Minoja - Alexandra Alvear - Christiaan Gischler Leave a Comment


The Caribbean countries are highly exposed to climate events, and buildings, especially housing, are particularly vulnerable. Those countries with a higher use of resilient materials perform better against climate impact and have smaller overall economic losses.

Cement and steel are among the most important resilient building materials in the Caribbean, but also require large amounts of energy to produce with correspondingly high levels of embodied carbon.

The fifth publication of the series “Building a more resilient and low carbon Caribbean” has examined three potential options to reduce the embodied carbon from the use of cement and steel in Caribbean buildings:

Option 1: Prioritizing the least carbon-intensive sources for cement and steel

Nine countries within the Caribbean produce cement, and these countries provide the majority of the cement supplied to Caribbean countries that do not produce it. By contrast, steel used in construction is largely sourced from outside the region, including as far away as China, Turkey, Brazil, and Canada. Trinidad and Tobago is the only country in the region with a history of significant steel exports.

The embodied carbon emissions related to the supply of cement and steel to the Caribbean include carbon emissions from the production as well as those resulting from shipping from the country of origin to the Caribbean region, with shipping accounting only 7% of the total embodied carbon for imported cement, and 9% of the total embodied carbon for imported steel, reflecting a very small role of shipping and impactful role of production in the total embodied emissions.

Changing supply chains so that all cement used in the region was sourced from the country with the lowest production embodied carbon was found to reduce embodied carbon by 26%. A similar shift for steel would reduce the embodied carbon by 39% (if it were able to be sourced from Trinidad and Tobago). Such a shift, however, could be limited by the source countries’ ability to produce sufficient materials, logistical constraints, and by contractual and trade relationships among suppliers. Shifting to the sources with the lowest embodied carbon could also increase the cost of cement and steel imports as current trade arrangements likely reflect a preference to source materials from the least-cost suppliers.

Option 2: Substituting traditional cement and steel with less carbon-intensive alternatives.

Another approach to reducing the carbon intensity of building materials is to use less carbon-intensive versions of standard building materials.  While green steel is not yet commercially available, green cement with reduced carbon content and other alternative alternatives are available:

  • Green cement (cement with reduced embodied carbon that is manufactured with reduced clinker content using alternative binding chemistries or manufactured with carbon-neutral fuels), is currently available and produced in the Caribbean, and has between 15% and 70% less embodied carbon than regular cement.

Option 3: Reducing the volume of cement and steel used per building through alternative designs and elements.

A free software was used to examine the potential reductions in embodied carbon emissions from applying different options, in a theoretical construction project. The greatest reduction in embodied carbon came in the outer walls, with a potential 72% decrease from conventional construction. The inner walls had the second highest reduction and the highest in percentage terms: replacing the brick and plaster walls with plasterboard on timber frames cut 83% of the embodied carbon. The floor and roof slabs each had a greater than 50% reduction in embodied carbon.

Using the material and design option with the least embodied carbon for each of the four building components, results in a 63% reduction in embodied carbon per square meter compared to the standard materials.

What’s the most effective way to reduce carbon emissions?

Opting for designs that require less steel (filler slabs for the floor and roof) or materials with less embodied carbon emissions (timber and plasterboard inner walls and cellular concrete block outer walls) – Option 3 – have the greatest impact on reducing embodied carbon emissions.

Changing the source of the cement and steel – Option 1 – or using green concrete – Option 2 – showed incremental reductions in the embodied carbon emissions, but these improvements were much less than the difference in embodied carbon emissions than changing the design solution.

Do you want to know more about this topic?

Download the full Report Decarbonization Pathways for the Caribbean Construction Industry!


Filed Under: Climate change Tagged With: Caribbean, climate change, climate resilience, decarbonization, resilience

Livia Minoja

Livia es Especialista en Infraestructura Social en el BID, donde trabaja en la preparación y ejecución de programas que incluyen el diseño y construcción de proyectos de infraestructura social, en varios países de la región, como Belice, Costa Rica, Perú, República Dominicana, Surinam, entre otros. Se interesa en temas de innovación, sostenibilidad y eficiencia energética en los diseños, y en la sistematización de buenas prácticas en la mejora de los procesos de ejecución de los programas. Anteriormente, Livia trabajó en la División de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda del BID, centrándose en la revitalización de los centros históricos; en ONU-Hábitat en México, como consultora para el desarrollo de lineamientos de diseño para refugios para mujeres víctimas de violencia; en la Agencia de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados de Palestina (UNRWA), como arquitecta en programa de desarrollo urbano para los campos de refugiados de Cisjordania. También se desempeñó en estudios de arquitectura y departamentos de investigación en Brasil e Italia, centrándose principalmente en proyectos de desarrollo urbano en zonas marginadas. Adicionalmente, ha sido Profesora en la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Iberoamericana de la Ciudad de México y en la Facultad de Estudios Urbanos de la Universidad de Al-Quds de Jerusalén. Livia tiene un Maestría en Arquitectura por el Politécnico de Milán.

Alexandra Alvear

Alexandra Alvear es ingeniera civil con un máster en Ciencias y Gestión de Proyectos en Ingeniería Ambiental y Energía de la École des Mines de Nantes, Francia. Cuenta con 10 años de experiencia en la gestión de proyectos de sostenibilidad ambiental y cambio climático, trabajando con organizaciones internacionales y gobiernos en más de 24 países emergentes y en desarrollo, impulsando estrategias de mitigación, descarbonización, adaptación y resiliencia; ha ejercido como profesora asociada e investigadora científica en Ecuador. Alexandra formó parte del Grupo de Infraestructura Social (GIS) del BID, como consultora especialista en infraestructura sostenible y edificios verdes, brindando asesoría y soporte técnico para la incorporación e implementación de edificaciones bajas en carbono y resilientes, destacando programas de vivienda social, infraestructura educativa y hospitalaria bajo estándares de certificación verde.

Christiaan Gischler

Christiaan Gischler, Lead Energy Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Mr. Gischler is the focal point for sustainable energy within the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with over 15 years of experience in the energy and environmental sector in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC). Currently, he is leading several initiatives in renewable energy including geothermal power, energy efficiency, bioenergy and climate change mitigation. Mr. Gischler is actively working and promoting sustainable energy projects and programs throughout LAC. Mr. Gischler has developed several co-financing instruments with several donors using climate financing such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and more recently with the Green Climate fund (GCF) in climate change mitigation, for energy projects in the LAC. He is the practice leader for Geothermal Power and for the Caribbean region in the IDB Energy Division. Mr. Gischler has designed, developed and executed projects and financial initiatives for over US$ 3.7 billion promoting sustainable energy in LAC. He has also participated in several conferences, promoting sustainable energy as well as policy & regulation to promote renewable energies, energy efficiency and carbon emission reductions. Prior to joining the IDB, Mr. Gischler worked for National Commission for Environment in Chile and for the private sector in air pollution control equipment, reuse of waste and energy efficiency. He has taught courses in environmental engineering in Chile and Sweden. Mr. Gischler holds two Engineering degrees in chemical engineering and biotechnological engineering from the University of Chile and a Masters in Science degree in environmental engineering and sustainable infrastructure from the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

SEARCH

Sustainability

This blog is a space to reflect about the challenges, opportunities and the progress made by Latin American and Caribbean countries on the path towards the region’s sustainable development.

SIMILAR POSTS

  • The cost of (not) building resilient infrastructure in the Caribbean
  • Is it worth it to invest in resilient constructions in the Caribbean? The answer is yes!
  • Net-zero industry could be just around the corner – if governments do this
  • Building resilience comes at a higher initial cost. How can we better finance it?
  • Three steps to a zero carbon future

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Derechos de autor © 2025 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    x
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT