New Year, new opportunities for impact

Many of us start the New Year with resolutions. Sadly many of those are quickly forgotten and we quickly slip back into old habits and business as usual. So I want to start the new year with this reminder (to myself as much as anyone else): what we are building is bigger than quick wins and impressive but isolated results. What we are doing is reshaping the system; the structures and behaviours in industry, policy, and finance that make lasting change possible and enduring. That takes time and persistence. Over our first few years we have laid the foundations: we have built tools, coalitions, and commitments. We have shown what’s possible and what is already happening, with examples to celebrate all over the world. In 2026, our focus is on moving from a patchwork to a fabric with biobased building woven in. A connected system where progress reinforces progress.

Why systems matter

The construction industry has been locked into patterns that drive emissions and resource depletion for decades. No one intended that to happen. Materials that offered clear advantages when they were first introduced continue to provide consistency, reliability and safety for the most part. However, we now have new priorities that require us to diversify and broaden our materials palette, to deliver low-carbon and circular solutions to help us meet our needs today and tomorrow. Changing that isn’t limited to celebrating demonstration projects or providing short-term incentives, important though both of these things can be—it’s about rewiring the entire system: markets, policies, supply chains, and, hardest of all, mindsets. That’s why Built by Nature exists: to make biobased building inevitable by enabling the conditions that allow it to scale.

We’ve seen the first signs of this shift. Networks of frontrunners are forming. Governments are recognising the benefits of Responsible Timber Construction. Investors are beginning to see biobased materials not just as alternatives, but in terms of competitive advantage. These are not like colourful New Year’s firework displays, here today, gone tomorrow; they are the early architecture of a new system. And now, the challenge is integration.

Our focus for 2026

First, we will focus on further connecting and enabling our European Network; bringing frontrunners together within and across national borders, sharing knowledge, funding innovation, and elevating leadership to mainstream biobased solutions, starting with timber. Collaboration is the engine of systemic change, and we will help make it stronger than ever.

We will seek to turn political commitments into regulatory reality. The Principles for Responsible Timber Construction have explicit national and municipal backing in 17 different jurisdictions; now we will work to connect industry frontrunners with policy makers to overcome barriers and enable biobased building markets to flourish.

We will continue to build out the Knowledge Hub as a central source of biobased building knowledge that serves industry players and policymakers across Europe and beyond. With your help and real-world experience we will be able to signpost and share the technical and financial insights needed to make biobased construction work in practice, not just in principle.

We will continue to show how a global movement is taking shape and growing in momentum; a movement that is doing things differently, learning together. From Europe to Asia to Latin America, projects are proving that biobased building is not a niche idea but a growing reality for the markets set to grow fastest over the coming decades.

Built by Nature’s ability to support this movement is thanks to with the commitment of impact-driven organizations such as Laudes Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Ramboll Foundation, and LTTP Foundation. Together, we are enabling bottom-up momentum across the industry by connecting frontrunners and the early majority of industry actors while engaging policymakers and investors to facilitate mainstreaming.

Staying focused together

The thing about systemic change, about weaving an ever-stronger fabric of industry, policy, and finance across geographies, is that true, enduring progress rarely comes in headlines. It happens steadily, stitch by stitch across the board, and it demands perseverance and endurance.

Hopefully the winter break gave most of us what we needed: a moment to step back, regain clarity, and refocus on what truly counts in 2026. For us, that means staying committed to the long game: building the structures that make lasting change possible. If you share that conviction, we invite you to walk with us. Because this year, more than ever, progress will come from those who choose to keep moving forward together, focused on opportunities that unite rather than divide us.