The Sounding Board enables built environment innovators to explore their novel ideas for sustainable construction with industry-leading peers.

Coastruction: Bio-active constructions for reef recovery

With over half a billion people dependent on food production from coral reefs worldwide, their collapse is not just catastrophic for biodiversity – but also an economic disaster for humanity, explains Nadia Fani, Founder & CEO of Coastruction. The startup aims to facilitate reef recovery using an additive manufacturing process for complex shapes made of natural materials that enable the regrowth of healthy coral colonies and ecosystem restoration.

Building with water: Restoring the water cycle in the built environment

Friso Klapwijk, Global Director Urban Climate Resilience at Wavin explains how designing our cities for water capture can be beneficial, and how the roofing system he has developed over the past ten years helps to harvest rainwater and consider water as a valuable resource from the first drop of rain to the final runoff – with hydrological, thermal, and environmental benefits.

Role of start-ups in scaling circular innovation: Examples from design and the built environment

The idea of a circular economy is not entirely new - but the implementation of circularity in established solutions and value chains is too slow to drive the change that we need, says Marvin Henry, Senior Manager Avoided Emissions at the WBCSD and former doctoral researcher at Utrecht University.

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