Advance low-carbon housing to cut construction emissions
Build Up Nepal总结
Low-carbon housing solutions replace carbon-intensive materials with energy-efficient, alternative building technologies that significantly cut CO₂ emissions and reduce air pollution.
Context
This case study is part of the “Climate Resilience Awards for Business” an initiative by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in partnership with the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), which celebrate businesses driving innovative and scalable solutions to strengthen climate resilience across operations, supply chains, and communities. Learn more here
Build up Nepal works at the frontlines of climate vulnerability, flood-prone plains, landslide-risk hills, and drought-affected regions where marginalized families face compounding climate shocks. Extreme rainfall, rising temperatures, and fragile soils pose significant threats to housing, livelihoods, and supply chains. These risks are material not only to operations, but also to entire communities that rely on safe, affordable housing. Traditional fired-brick construction worsens emissions and air pollution, while unsafe housing magnifies disaster losses. The solution turns this challenge into an opportunity: Build up Nepal trains local entrepreneurs to produce low-carbon, interlocking eco-bricks and build homes that withstand floods and earthquakes, reducing CO₂ emissions by 75%, construction costs by 25%, and air pollution by 90%. By localizing production, Build up Nepal ensures climate risks neither halt construction nor erode community resilience. Every home built reduces emissions, strengthens safety, and creates green jobs, turning climate vulnerability into a pathway for adaptation and inclusive growth.
Location of the initiative: Nepal, South Asia — Lalitpur
Solution
Build up Nepal’s Climate-Resilient Housing Initiative tackles both the causes and impacts of climate change by transforming how homes are built in vulnerable regions. Traditional fired bricks emit high CO₂, drive deforestation, and produce homes unable to withstand floods, landslides, and earthquakes. The initiative flips this challenge by enabling local micro-entrepreneurs to produce interlocking, low-carbon eco-bricks using locally available materials such as industrial waste, ashes, and soil, requiring no firing, no electricity, and cutting CO₂ emissions by 75% and air pollution by 90%.
Key actions include:
Training & equipping entrepreneurs to produce eco-bricks and deliver disaster-resilient homes at scale.
Strengthening supply chains to ensure last-mile delivery even during climate shocks.
Innovating with interlocking technology to make homes earthquake- and flood-resilient while reducing cement and construction costs by 25%.
Building local capacity so 95% of homes are financed and owned by low-income families, ensuring sustainability beyond donor projects.
This model integrates climate adaptation (disaster-safe homes), mitigation (low-carbon materials), and livelihood creation (local green jobs). By replacing a carbon-intensive industry with a decentralized, climate-smart alternative, Build up Nepal helps communities withstand physical climate risks while creating a scalable pathway for green, affordable, and resilient housing across Nepal.
Build up Nepal’s model for low-carbon, disaster-resilient construction offers a blueprint that can be adapted and scaled across regions and countries. Its demonstrated impact underscores strong value for donors and foundations: more than 12,000 affordable homes built and 200 micro-enterprises launched, with a 75% reduction in emissions and 25–35% lower construction costs achieved without ongoing subsidies. This success not only addresses urgent housing and climate needs but also inspires replication by other organizations, demonstrating how empowering local entrepreneurs can drive sustainable housing at scale.
Low-carbon eco-bricks
Creation of 200+ local micro-enterprises
Sustainable housing practices
Impact
Sustainability impact
Climate
Targets emissions from construction materials (Scope 3 – Category 1: Purchased Goods and Services).
Low-carbon eco-bricks reduce CO₂ emissions by 75% compared to fired bricks.
Air pollution associated with brick production decreases by 90%.
The initiative provides disaster-resilient housing, reducing long-term emissions from reconstruction cycles.
Supports a scalable pathway for low-carbon housing in flood-, landslide-, and earthquake-affected regions.
Nature
Reduces environmental pressure associated with fired-brick production, including deforestation and soil degradation (information not available in depth).
Localized production reduces transport-related environmental impacts.
Social
Over 60,000 people supported through 12,000+ eco-homes in disaster-prone regions.
Homes withstand floods, landslides, and earthquakes, reducing loss of life, assets, and livelihoods.
Creation of 200+ local micro-enterprises, including women-led groups, strengthens income generation.
Local training improves skills, employment, and long-term resilience.
Business impact
Local entrepreneurs (including women, youth and Disadvantaged Groups) are trained to produce eco-bricks in their communities. Each micro-enterprise creates local jobs and builds affordable homes using these low-carbon bricks. By empowering community members as builders, Build up Nepal’s model keeps economic benefits within rural areas while reducing carbon emissions.
Benefits
Build up Nepal, the solution provider, operates around 220 localized micro enterprises that produce eco bricks close to construction sites. This reduces transport needs, avoids climate related supply disruptions, and keeps value in local economies.
These micro enterprises have created about 1,943 jobs in production and construction. Around 74% of workers are from disadvantaged groups (DAG) and about one quarter are women, which strengthens the solution provider’s social impact and aligns with national inclusion goals.
The technology typically reduces total construction costs by 25 to 40% compared to fired bricks. This cost efficiency allows the solution provider to reach more low income families while remaining competitive in rural and peri urban housing markets.
Since 2015, enterprises supported by the solution provider have built more than 12,143 disaster resilient houses and avoided an estimated 122,989 tons of CO2 emissions. These outcomes demonstrate a clear climate and social return for public and philanthropic partners.
National building code approval for CSEB eco bricks and growing interest from municipalities improve policy alignment. This creates a clearer framework and more predictable long term demand for the solution provider and its micro enterprises.
The technology has been used in earthquake affected districts such as Jajarkot and Rukum West. Early results from these areas show that locally produced eco brick houses can support faster, lower carbon recovery, which strengthens the solution provider’s role in reconstruction programs.
Costs
To date, the solution provider has mobilized about USD 3.5 million toward an estimated USD 10 million funding need by 2030. The remaining gap must be closed to reach targets of roughly 100,000 homes and 1,000 enterprises.
Around 80% of ongoing costs are covered by earned income from machinery and services sold to enterprises and construction of schools. This reduces dependence on grants but requires the solution provider to maintain steady sales and enterprise growth each year (Build up Nepal, 2024).
Roughly 20% of funds come from grants and prizes, which support equipment for the poorest entrepreneurs, technical training, municipal capacity building, and research to further cut cement use and emissions in the technology.
Public reports provide only limited detail on operating expenses, per unit costs, and subsidy levels. This constrains external cost benefit analysis, although the available evidence indicates lower cost per house than conventional fired brick construction.
Localized production reduces transport distances, fuel use, and exposure to road closures or price spikes. This helps the solution provider control delivery costs in remote areas and limits climate related disruptions to ongoing projects.
Implementation
Typical business profile
This initiative is most relevant for construction, housing, and building materials enterprises, social businesses, and impact-driven SMEs advancing climate adaptation, entrepreneurship, and poverty reduction. It enables companies to cut CO₂ emissions, build disaster-resilient housing, and empower local communities, especially DAG groups, through green jobs and micro-enterprises.
Ideal for South Asia, and other climate-vulnerable regions facing floods, landslides, earthquakes, and heat extremes, it supports businesses aiming to localize production, strengthen community resilience, and integrate adaptation with inclusive economic growth. For companies on a climate adaptation journey, it offers a scalable pathway combining mitigation, resilience, entrepreneurship, and community empowerment to transform vulnerable regions into climate-smart, self-reliant ecosystems.
Approach
The initiative is implemented through a locally-led, decentralized model combining technology, training, and entrepreneurship. Build up Nepal equips micro-entrepreneurs, many from DAG groups and low-income communities, with brick-making machines, technical training, and business support to produce interlocking eco-bricks using local materials.
Implementation involves:
Enterprise Creation: Setting up climate-smart micro-enterprises for brick production.
Capacity Building: Training masons, contractors, and municipal engineers in disaster-resilient, low-carbon construction.
Community Engagement: Partnering with local governments and NGOs to integrate eco-bricks into building codes and housing programs.
Supply Chain Localization: Ensuring last-mile delivery even in disaster-prone areas.
Different approaches include public-private partnerships, donor-funded scaling, or market-driven enterprise models, allowing replication in South Asia, and other vulnerable geographies.
This flexibility enables adaptation, mitigation, entrepreneurship, and poverty reduction to align seamlessly in diverse contexts.
Stakeholders involved
Project lead: Björn Söderberg (Co-founder & Managing Director) - The visionary social entrepreneur who co-founded Build up Nepal in 2015 after Nepal’s devastating earthquake. He has led the initiative’s strategy and operations, focusing on empowering local communities with eco-friendly construction solutions. Under Söderberg’s leadership, Build up Nepal provides low-cost, sustainable brick technology and supports entrepreneurs to rebuild safe homes in rural areas. (His wife Bina Shrestha is co-founder and Chief Strategist, also contributing significantly to the project’s strategy and impact.)
Company functions: The engineering team delivers hands on training for entrepreneurs and masons, installs machines, and supports quality control on construction sites. The research team improves the technology, including brick mix designs and cement reduction, and supports testing and documentation so the approach remains robust and replicable.
Main providers: Practical Action, DanChurchAid, and Tuki Nepal provide grant funding, technical inputs, and joint project management. FCDO and DFAT finance larger programs where the technology is used in housing and reconstruction. These providers have supported equipment, training, and enterprise development while the solution provider delivers the core technology and capacity building.
Other stakeholders: Different municipalities across Nepal and esp. the local governments in Jajarkot and Rukum West help identify target communities, align the work with local plans, and approve the use of eco bricks in reconstruction. Community Impact Nepal acts as a key implementation partner, mobilizing communities, supporting enterprise setup, and coordinating local construction so the solution can reach low income households in remote areas.
Key parameters to consider
Initiative maturity: Build up Nepal was founded in 2015 and has since scaled significantly. The core technology (Compressed Stabilized Earth Bricks, or CSEB) is an established low-carbon brickmaking method that Build up Nepal adapted for local. After a decade of refinement, including thousands of houses built and formal approval of the brick technology in Nepal’s building code in 2017 - the approach is now proven and no longer an early-stage pilot
Implementation Timeline: The model demonstrates rapid scalability. From 2015 to 2025, Build up Nepal expanded to 73 out of 77 districts in Nepal, supporting 6–10 new micro-enterprises per month even amid challenges like the pandemic. This suggests a relatively short setup time for each enterprise – after a few weeks of training and securing equipment, local entrepreneurs can start producing bricks and building homes. Overall, the initiative reached over 12,000 homes built within ~8 years, indicating an efficient implementation of pace.
Average Lifetime of Structures and Enterprise: Houses built with these eco-bricks are intended as permanent, disaster-resilient structures. In fact, all houses built with this technology survived a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in 2023 without damage, proving their durability. Properly constructed CSEB homes are expected to last for decades similar to conventional brick houses. The micro-enterprises themselves are designed to be sustainable long-term businesses – since they generate income from brick and construction sales (not relying on short-term aid), they can continue operating indefinitely as local “economic engines”.
Technical Constraints & Prerequisites: Key requirements for implementation include training and equipment. Entrepreneurs must acquire a brick-press machine and learn the CSEB production technique. Access to suitable raw materials (soil, sand, stone dust, a small amount of cement) is necessary, though these are usually locally available in Nepal. The construction method also requires know-how in reinforced masonry techniques (e.g. adding steel reinforcements to meet earthquake safety), which Build up Nepal provides in its training. An enabling regulatory environment is important: in Nepal, the government approved this eco-brick technology in the national building code, which was crucial for widespread adoption. However, the absence of detailed government standards for CSEB (e.g. missing formal norms/specifications) complicates public procurement. Additionally, entrepreneurs need startup capital or financing to purchase machines and materials - lack of access to credit (especially for women or marginalized groups) has been noted as a challenge that needs addressing.
Geographical and Sector Specifics: This model is particularly relevant in regions with high housing demand, costly traditional materials, or disaster recovery needs. In Nepal’s rural and peri-urban areas, transporting conventional fired bricks is expensive, so producing bricks on-site yields clear advantages. The initiative first took root in earthquake-affected districts, aligning with reconstruction efforts, but it is applicable to general affordable housing shortages as well. It has been used to build not only homes but also schools and public buildings (124 schools so far), showing cross-sector applicability. Importantly, the technology suits climates where earth-based materials are viable; structures are designed to be climate-adaptive (withstand earthquakes, heavy rains, etc.). Local building regulations enable or hinder the solution - Nepal’s experience shows that government endorsement and integration with housing programs (e.g. rebuilding grants) greatly aid adoption.
Availability of subsidies: The model remains affordable without ongoing subsidies. On average, homes built with the technology cost about 25 to 35% less than fired brick houses, which allows many low income families to build using their own savings. Monitoring data indicate that roughly 95 percent of homes have been self financed by homeowners rather than donors. Public or donor subsidies can support faster recovery in disaster impacted regions like Jajarkot and Rukum West where more than 79000 houses has been destroyed/damaged after the 2023 earthquake.
Scalability and Expansion: A key consideration is the scalability of the approach in new regions. Build up Nepal’s decentralized model is inherently scalable via local entrepreneurs, and the organization has set ambitious targets to expand. By 2030, they aim to facilitate 100,000 homes (up from ~12,000 now) and ~1,000 micro-enterprises, which would replace 10% of Nepal’s fired-brick market. There is also interest in replicating the model internationally – plans are underway to expand into countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, and to partner with communities in India and Africa. This suggests that with appropriate training and partnerships, the initiative’s success in Nepal could be transferred to other developing regions. When considering implementation elsewhere, one should ensure similar enabling conditions (local material supply, community buy-in, supportive policy) to achieve the same scalable impact.
Implementation and operations tips
For effective implementation and day-to-day operation of this climate-resilient housing initiative, the following best practices have been identified from Build up Nepal’s experience:
Local Leadership is Critical: Empowering local micro-entrepreneurs to lead the brick production and construction is vital for continuity and resilience. These community-based entrepreneurs ensure the work continues even during crises or climate disasters. For example, in recent quake-hit districts, dozens of local brick enterprises sprang up to meet rebuilding needs, having trained locals in place enabled rapid recovery without waiting for outside aid. Locally-led enterprises can adapt and keep operating through disruptions, making the initiative more sustainable.
Co-Create with Communities and Municipalities: Involving local governments and community members from the start strengthens adoption and long-term ownership of the project. Build up Nepal actively partners with municipalities, masons, and villagers to implement its model, rather than working in isolation. This co-creation builds trust and alignment with local needs.
Leverage Affordability to Drive Uptake: The economic case for these eco-bricks is a major factor in their wide uptake. Houses built with these eco-bricks are roughly 25–35% cheaper than those with traditional fired bricks. This lower cost - achieved through local material use and reduced cement and transport needs – means even poor families can afford safe homes.
Combine Mitigation and Adaptation Benefits: A notable strength of the initiative is that it addresses both climate mitigation and climate adaptation, which in turn builds community trust. On the mitigation side, the production of these compressed earth bricks avoids the heavy coal-burning of kiln-fired bricks, cutting carbon emissions by about 75% and dramatically reducing air pollution. At the same time, the homes provide adaptation benefits: they are engineered to be disaster-resilient, with many surviving earthquakes and floods that leveled conventional structure. This dual benefit (safer homes and cleaner technology) makes it easier to win local support. Communities and officials see immediate life-saving advantages as well as long-term environmental gains, which accelerates trust in the solution and momentum for scaling it up.
Invest in Skill-Building and Inclusion: Developing local skills - among builders, engineers, and especially marginalized groups is essential for the initiative’s success and for broader economic resilience. Build up Nepal found that providing extensive training for local masons and engineers ensures consistent construction quality as the technology spreads. Additionally, deliberately including women and disadvantaged groups as enterprise owners and workers amplifies the impact. While construction in Nepal is traditionally male-dominated, women entrepreneurs who have joined report gaining confidence, leadership skills, and respect in their communities. Building the capacity of these groups not only expands the labor force for housing construction but also creates new income streams for vulnerable populations.