Housing is an important need but construction has not seriously considered sustainability. This is particularly troublesome considering climate change.
Innovation has been slow in materials and there is no work on modernizing heritage materials and architecture styles which suited local needs.
Founders who work on these dont get access to funds as construction is not an easy space to succeed. One way is to get carbon credit for the emissions saved but this is a long route with costs and resource needs.
What will be helpful is to have sustainability focused philanthropic organizations take on supporting tech R&D abd carbon credit assessment so that regular capital can come in later. Or a warrant besides grant to get some upside.
There is potential here for new product creation, but needs patient capital that also guides towards scale.
I managed a global low income housing fund and these were my observations.
Would be great if this can be tackled in a systemic way.
Thanks
Meera