3 Lighthouse winners in the built environment that showcase sustainable innovation

Contributing authors: Anis Nassar, Lead, Circular Economy Innovation and Business Engagement, World Economic Forum; Jukka Maksimainen, Senior Partner, McKinsey; Amelie Pohl, World Economic Forum Project Fellow, Senior Consultant, McKinsey.

The built environment significantly influences our planet's health, accounting for 27% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings alone consume approximately 30% of the world's energy and 25% of its water, while generating a staggering 30% of all waste. As urbanization accelerates, the environmental footprint of our cities expands, underscoring the urgent need for sustainable construction practices.

By rethinking how we design, construct and operate buildings, we can mitigate these impacts and pave the way for a greener, more resilient built environment.

The Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) is the leading industry community celebrating the world’s top-performing production and operations sites. Network members showcase proven performance increases and achieve operational excellence across technology, talent and sustainability domains. Launched in 2019, the network has expanded to over 189 Lighthouses, including 25 Lighthouses focused on sustainability. These Lighthouses set new benchmarks in productivity, agility and eco-efficiency, providing a roadmap for other organizations to follow in their digital and sustainability transformation journeys.

The GLN has recently expanded to include a special focus on the built environment. In collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Circularity in the Built Environment initiative, these awards honour manufacturing, processing and construction sites that showcase innovative and distinctive sustainability solutions with proven impact and scale.

The first round of awarding Sustainability Lighthouses in the built environment recognized Holcim, Schneider Electric and Interface for their innovative circularity solutions. These achievements are further detailed here: Circular economy: How ‘lighthouses’ in the built environment can drive value.

The second round of awarding Sustainability Lighthouses in the built environment has concluded, recognizing three new site-level Lighthouses. In total, five Sustainability Lighthouses have been awarded, including Schneider Electric in Wuxi, China, and Siemens AG in Fürth, Germany.

This site achieved a 97% recycling content for its main alloy and has reduced Scope 3 emissions by 53% through advanced analytics, flexible equipment design, optimized scrap procurement, sorting and segregation. This led to a greenhouse gas intensity of 1.1 tCO2/t, significantly lower than the industry average of 5.8 tCO2/t. Contributing 25% of North America's sales of the 3105 alloy for the building and construction market, this accomplishment supports Novelis’ goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. They implemented three key solutions:

"The urgency to reduce waste and decarbonize industries has never been greater. Supply chain, customers, consumers and industry alike have the opportunity to drive a circular economy," said Derek Keddy, Vice President, Specialties, Novelis North America.

"Enhancing technology along with optimizing material flow, procurement practices and scrap segregation for aluminium is key to increase access and scale of high-recycled content products for the building and construction industry. Combined with aluminium's infinite recyclability, high-recycled content products can significantly reduce carbon emissions and landfilled waste."

The site eliminated Scope 2 emissions through a power purchase agreement and reduced Scope 1 emissions by approximately 60% through waste heat recovery and mini mill technology. They implemented three key solutions:

Greg Murphy, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Business Services and Sustainability at Nucor Corporation: “Nucor’s commitment to circular steelmaking began in the 1960s, and our Sedalia mill exemplifies how we continue to innovate and push the boundaries of sustainable steel production. By leveraging waste heat recovery, renewable energy and micro mill technology, our teammates are significantly reducing emissions and advancing our goal of achieving net zero by 2050. The impressive reductions at Sedalia highlight how strategic innovation can drive meaningful progress in decarbonizing the steel industry.”

The site achieved zero waste, reduced potable water use by over 70% and cut Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by over 60%. It did this by maximizing design to value and leveraging multiple technologies, including closed-loop water recycling, hybrid excavators, low-carbon concrete and alternative fuels. Ferrovia implemented three key solutions:

Valentin Alfaya, Sustainability Director at Ferrovia: “As a society, we need to move from statements and public commitments to actions, and we need to speed it up, implementing tangible measures that are effective in terms of decarbonization, conservation of natural capital or circularity of materials and waste. Our construction division is an excellent example: supported by the talent and commitment of our people, applying forefront technologies, embedding innovation and creativity in our projects, we turn our commitments into actions, so we contribute to addressing the environmental challenges we all face. In other words: we make things happen.”

These Lighthouses have demonstrated how significant sustainability impacts can be achieved with available solutions. They have shown a clear commitment to lowering emissions and conserving natural resources, including building materials and water. These Lighthouses serve as inspiration for other organizations to pursue sustainability.

Join the movement towards a sustainable built environment. Learn more about the Global Lighthouse Network and how your organization can implement these transformative practices. Visit the GLN website for more details and insights.