Food
Agrifood systems include farming, land-use change and the supply chain. Their emissions cannot be separated from land, water, health and livelihoods.
FAO · 2022 global data ↗
Sustainability basics
A practical way to look at sustainability.
Food, mobility and housing are connected to climate, ecosystems and everyday wellbeing. The figures below are starting points for asking better questions, not a scorecard for people or places.
Global evidence · figures use different boundaries and are intentionally not combined into one ranking.
Connected systems
Where impacts sit
Food, mobility and shelter meet basic needs, but their impacts are measured through different systems. Looking at the connections is more useful than declaring one category “the worst”.
Shelter and buildings
Homes and other buildings shape energy, materials, comfort, affordability, health and access over long periods of time.
UNEP · 2025–26 global report ↗Mobility
Mobility is about access to work, care, education and community. Its impacts depend on distances, infrastructure, vehicles and the energy system.
IEA · 2024 global road data ↗Selected evidence
A few numbers, with their boundaries visible
These charts show breakdowns within one source at a time. They are not components of a common global pie chart.
Agrifood-system emissions by stage
Global, 2022 · 16.2 Gt CO₂e in total
Text equivalent: farm-gate activities account for 48%, land-use change 19%, and pre- and post-production processes 33% of the cited agrifood-system total.
FAO · 2022 global data ↗Road-transport emissions by vehicle type
Global, 2024 · road-sector CO₂ emissions: just over 6 Gt
Text equivalent: passenger cars and vans produce over 60% of 2024 road-sector CO₂ emissions; trucks about one-third; buses and two- and three-wheelers 7%.
IEA · 2024 global road data ↗Building context
Why buildings matter
Buildings affect emissions and material demand, but their purpose is also to support safe, healthy, comfortable and accessible places to live and work.
The first two figures are different indicators, not directly comparable percentages.
Different contexts, shared questions
Better buildings can support more independent lives
The point is not to promote one lifestyle. It is to make comfort, cost exposure, resource demand and resilience easier to discuss in the context at hand.
Dense and modern
High-rises and other complex buildings raise questions about façades, systems, daylight, overheating, materials and long-term operation.
Low-impact and self-reliant
Smaller or lower-tech homes can foreground passive comfort, modest space, repairability, local resources and resilience — with their own constraints and trade-offs.
The shared discipline
In either context, useful analysis states the boundary, makes assumptions visible, compares options and avoids treating a sustainability label as proof.
Orientation, not a checklist
Useful frameworks
Frameworks can help make connections visible. They do not replace local evidence, professional judgement, or democratic decisions.
Sustainable Development Goals
The 17 UN goals provide shared language for links between people, prosperity and planet. They are not a project certification or a promise of impact.
UN Sustainable Development Goals ↗Doughnut Economics
This lens asks how social needs can be met within ecological limits. It is a way of thinking, not a blueprint or a label for individual projects.
Doughnut Economics Action Lab ↗Biodiversity and land
Globally, land-use change has had the largest relative impact among direct drivers of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem change. Context matters greatly in any specific place.
IPBES global assessment ↗Sources
Read the evidence in context
Figures can change as data and methods improve. These links lead to the original institutions and reports used on this page.
- FAO — Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems, 2022 data
- UNEP / GlobalABC — Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2025–2026
- IEA — Breakthrough Agenda Report 2025: Road transport
- IPBES — Global Assessment, Summary for Policymakers
- United Nations — Sustainable Development Goals
- Doughnut Economics Action Lab — About Doughnut Economics