A Future Growth Model for Building More Housing and Infrastructure with Less Embodied Greenhouse Gas.

Global demand for housing and the climate crisis have created a seemingly impossible choice between the need to build more and the need to emit less from construction materials. Here, we present the future infrastructure growth (FIG) model, a generalizable method for finding pathways to build enough housing and infrastructure while reducing material emissions, in line with climate commitments. FIG uses open data to quantify the emissions of existing neighborhoods as if they were built new; it then uses these quantifications to forecast future cradle-to-gate embodied emissions from new residential buildings and linear infrastructure construction.