Build up Nepal is revolutionising house building with a low-carbon and cost-effective alternative to clay fired bricks; supporting entrepreneurs and helping communities live safely in affordable, resilient homes.
Brickmaking in Nepal produces around 1.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, while floods and earthquakes have destroyed more than one million homes across the country over the past decade, including 79,000 in 2023 alone.
The rebuilding costs are enormous, and the environmental impact is significant. Clay-fired bricks, which are commonly used, account for 37% of Nepal’s CO2 emissions, with cement burning adding to air pollution. Until now, there hasn’t been a cost-effective, resilient alternative to these materials.
Nepal is highly vulnerable to climate change and earthquakes, facing increasingly frequent disasters like devastating floods. Building homes that can withstand these challenges is essential. At the same time, the country urgently needs to transition away from traditional, carbon-intensive building materials to affordable, eco-friendly alternatives.
Founded by Björn Söderberg and his wife Bina Shrestha after a large earthquake struck the country in 2015, Build up Nepal (BUN) provides a sustainable, resilient, and low-carbon alternative to traditional clay-fired bricks.
BUN’s eco-interlocking bricks are compressed instead of fired, reducing CO2 emissions by 75% and air pollution by 90%. Made from local materials like stone dust and containing just 6-7% cement, the eco-bricks are also significantly cheaper than fired bricks. And they’re not stopping there! BUN is currently working to reduce the cement content even further, with the ultimate goal of 0% cement, 100% carbon-neutral bricks.
BUN helps people in cities and rural areas build affordable, eco-friendly, earthquake-resilient homes. They sell brick-making equipment to entrepreneurs, train them to produce bricks from local materials like stone, soil, dust, and fibres, and teach them how to build homes with steel reinforcements. Their technology is now approved by the Nepalese government’s Building Code, making it easier to scale and promote widespread adoption.
The impact of BUN’s solution is clear. In November 2023, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Nepal, destroying over 79,000 homes—largely due to unsafe construction methods. However, all the homes built using Build up Nepal’s technology near the epicentre remained undamaged, saving many lives.
BUN measures its impact by the number of houses built (currently 11,000) and the CO2 emissions saved compared to clay-fired bricks. Each house built with their technology reduces emissions by 9.5 tonnes of CO2e, with total savings reaching around 100,000 tonnes of CO2e—equivalent to over 35,000 round-trip flights between London and Kathmandu.
So far, more than 43,000 people have benefitted from new homes, with 2,232 jobs created by 307 entrepreneurs. BUN has also helped build 124 schools and public buildings.
Björn Söderberg, Managing Director, Build up Nepal
Build up Nepal’s model is designed to scale, with brick-making machines ready for market and financing available to support entrepreneurs in getting started.
One positive outcome from the devastation of the 2023 earthquake is that families can now apply for government grants to rebuild their homes. These grants incentivize the use of green technologies like Build Up Nepal, which costs no more than traditional construction methods.
Looking ahead, Build Up Nepal plans to expand into Bangladesh and Pakistan, with interest from communities in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. By 2030, they aim to build 100,000 houses, saving around one million tonnes of CO2e. After that, they plan to expand into India, China, and Africa.
