The planetary emergency demands brave leadership, and a willingness to change

The state of the world is alarming. We are grappling with a series of polycrises, all of which are inextricably connected through multifaceted and sometimes unpredictable feedback loops. This has created a lived experience for ordinary people around the world that is, at best, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). 

The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Risk Report finds the global outlook increasingly fractured across geopolitical, environmental, societal, economic and technological domains. Environmental risks once again dominate the long-term picture, with the top concerns being extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, critical changes to Earth systems, and natural resource shortages. 

The broader planetary health context is equally stark. In 2025, Earth Overshoot Day, the date on which human demand for resources exceeds the planet’s biocapacity to regenerate, falls on 24 July. This is nearly a week earlier than in 2024, and a shocking five months earlier than in 1970. At current rates of consumption and waste production, humanity would need 1.8 Earths to sustain itself. 

Professor Johan Rockström’s 2023 Planetary Health Check found that six of the nine processes that maintain a safe and resilient operating space for life on Earth have now been breached, with a seventh close to doing so. Climate change is only one of these dimensions; others include biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, soil degradation and freshwater changes. We are in a veritable planetary emergency, and the interdependence of environmental, social and economic factors means that none of these threats can be addressed in isolation. 

In this context, what should be the role of UK social housing providers in ensuring that residents and their neighbouring communities are able to flourish through changing lifestyles that also respect planetary boundaries? Clarion Housing Group, and every organisation responsible for the built environment, has the opportunity to reimagine its underlying purpose and put people and planet front and first. 

The built environment industry is still paralysed by the complexity of achieving a net zero carbon future. The plethora of standards, guidelines and targets for reducing carbon emissions is bewildering, and the scale and speed of the retrofitting task ahead is daunting. But a narrow focus on decarbonisation misses the broader systemic issues that underpin the housing crisis and deepen inequalities. Housing associations must take a broader view of the systems they sit within and show leadership in tackling the interconnected challenges facing their residents. 

As urban populations expand and socio-economic parameters shift, pressure on natural resources and ecosystems will intensify. Communities will face significant disruption and health risks, from heatwaves and water-related stress to poor housing quality, loneliness and isolation. Many social housing residents already experience greater disadvantage and vulnerability, making them more likely to be disproportionately affected by sudden economic shocks, food price inflation or water shortages, all further exacerbated by climate change. 

The first thing social housing providers can do is think at a level commensurate with the scale of the challenges. This means adopting a holistic approach to problem-solving and interconnected systems thinking. Understanding the challenges through the lens of residents is key. Rather than planning a purely technical decarbonisation programme, how can housing providers equip, educate, inspire and support residents to adapt to inevitable changes? How can they foster meaningful connections within communities? 

One approach is to consider the unique qualities and potential of each individual place. This may mean onsite renewable energy generation, community cooling spaces, allotments and urban farming, water harvesting systems, or nature-based flood alleviation. It may also involve shifting from individual ownership models to shared economies, with community spaces, libraries of things, wellness areas and communal green landscapes. 

The planetary emergency demands brave leadership. The holy grail for the built environment will be to reposition construction as a regenerative economic activity, where homes contribute clean energy, healthy food, captured water, sequestered carbon and restored ecosystems. Social housing providers could and should become stewards of ecological and human wellbeing, evolving their purpose and business models to prioritise ecological stewardship, circularity and community cohesion.