Is bigger, better? Quality over quantity, goes the old adage. But it seems as society, as businesses, and as individuals we have an obsession with wanting more. More jobs, more revenue, more income, more stuff. But, increasingly, the assumption that growth is good is coming under scrutiny. It is a discussion that has profound implications for the construction industry.

Covid has intensified the debate, but is not the cause. The trigger is rather the growing awareness that we are living beyond the means of the planet to support us. Or to use the term adopted by Kate Raworth in Doughnut Economics, we are breaching our planetary boundaries. We are doing so in multiple ways, particularly through global warming, biodiversity loss and deforestation. If we blindly continue to pursue growth for its own sake, we risk driving humanity itself to destruction – potentially within the lifetimes of those being born today.

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