Webinar: Understanding the Post-disaster Building Materials Crisis

Disasters and conflicts destroy hundreds of thousands of buildings annually, and rebuilding requires vast quantities of material. But do we have the materials to rebuild better, more safely, and more sustainably? The socio-environmental impacts of extracting building materials for post-disaster reconstruction are escalating at an alarming rate, driven by the increasing frequency of disasters and the impacts of climate change. 

The 2025 Global Call to Action: Sustainable Building Materials Management in Post-Disaster Situations brought the global post-disaster building materials crisis to the attention of both international and local stakeholders.

To build wider global awareness of this critical issue, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in collaboration with Northwestern University, RMIT University, and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), are organizing a three-part webinar series titled: Overcoming the global post-disaster building materials crisis: innovation and policy change. The first webinar in the series: 

Theme: Understanding the post-disaster building materials crisisDate: June 18, 2026 (Thursday)

Time: 6:00 AM CDT / 12:00 PM BST / 1:00 PM CEST / 9:00 PM AEST

Speakers and topics will include:
Anita van Breda, Senior Director, Environment and Disaster Management, World Wildlife Fund — will provide opening remarks and frame WWF’s work on environmentally responsible disaster recovery, reconstruction, and risk reduction.

Steven Crosskey, Head of Strategic Initiatives, UNOPS Infrastructure and Project Management Group — will provide opening remarks from the perspective of infrastructure, project management, and development practice.

Missaka Hettiarachchi, Senior Fellow, Environment and Disaster Management Program, World Wildlife Fund — will discuss the dimensions and scale of the global post-disaster building materials crisis and the need for global action.

Usha Iyer-Raniga, Professor of Sustainable Built Environment, RMIT University — will provide policy context on circularity, sustainable construction, and post-disaster/post-conflict reconstruction.

Martin Bjerregaard, Managing Director, D3 — will share practical examples and case studies on post-disaster debris management, recycling, and implementation challenges.

Stephen Carr, Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University — will provide closing reflections from a materials science and sustainable reconstruction perspective.

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