A partnership with nature: Construction consortium for the global environment

Abstract

There is no doubt that human beings are intervening in natural environments in potentially significant ways. There are controversies about the scale and scope of these interventions. That fact is not questioned by anyone, anywhere. Because construction by definition means building human environments and altering the areas being built, the construction industry is extremely vulnerable to an emerging ethos of environmental responsibility. The crucial fact is that with the inevitable vulnerabilities come now opportunities. To the extent that the construction industry can appreciate—and even create—these opportunities, this vulnerability could be turned to major advantages, possibly greater than had even been the case in the history of this industry.