The construction industry have a lot of competing requirements, but the two which receive the most attention are undoubtedly making homes in a cost effective way, but also producing homes which have high levels of energy efficiency. In some ways these don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but thanks to a number of reasons, in practice they often are.
Climate change has become a big concern for the global community, and scrutiny needs to be applied to every facet of modern life. As a part of this, a lot of the burden has been placed upon the construction industry to use construction techniques and materials which minimise the carbon emissions during construction, as well as using insulative materials and architectural designs which limit the need for energy to heat homes. Much of this is enforced by law for all new buildings.