SET Award 2026’s Buildings & Construction Innovators
The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions — and unlike some hard-to-abate sectors, much of the solution already exists. The challenge is getting it into buildings. SET Award 2026’s Buildings & Construction category features 13 companies doing exactly that: cutting embodied carbon through novel materials, slashing design waste with AI, and extending the life of existing structures instead of tearing them down.
Hardware dominates at 62%, the highest of any SET100 category, reflecting the physical reality of construction. Yet these are not early-stage experiments: all 13 companies are mid or late stage, with zero still in early R&D. That caution is structural. Construction’s long sales cycles, liability exposure, and conservative procurement mean that pilots abound but scaling is hard. Converting pilots to long-term contracts is the top challenge cited, higher than in any other category. According to the latest figures from Net Zero Insights, the cohort has raised a combined total of nearly $35 million across 9 companies with disclosed funding.
Two innovation themes run through the category. Digital optimisation platforms use AI and aerial imaging to deliver dramatic efficiency gains in design, planning, and retrofit. Novel materials tackle embodied carbon directly, through mycelium, biomimetic wood, biochar concrete, and passive cooling films, while a circular economy thread runs through both, turning industrial waste into building inputs and extending asset life instead of replacing it.
Winner: Mykor – Growing The Future Of Insulation
What if insulation could be grown from agricultural waste? Mykor, based in Bristol, does exactly that. Its MykoSIP panels combine mycelium, the root structure of fungi, with industrial residues to create a prefabricated building system that integrates structure, insulation, and cladding in one bio-based panel.
The numbers are striking: 60% less embodied carbon than conventional alternatives, Euroclass B fire safety certification, zero toxic emissions, and full circularity. Unlike conventional systems, the panels are biodegradable, non-toxic, and faster to install. Mykor’s proprietary Grow process is low-energy and automated, and the company has backed its ambition with £337.5 million in offtake agreements and a JV-backed Belgian factory. Construction has always needed better materials. Mykor is growing them.
Birdsview – The X-Ray For Concrete
Most decisions about whether to rehabilitate or demolish a structure are still made on the basis of assumptions, outdated documentation, or destructive testing. Birdsview, based in Norway, changes that with what it calls a digital X-ray for buildings: a radar-based hardware and AI platform that reveals the internal condition of concrete structures without drilling, damage, or disruption.
The system records electromagnetic reflections from subsurface features, converts waveforms into spatial data, and uses classification models to map reinforcement and identify deterioration on the spot. Output is BIM-compatible and delivered in real time. For engineers and asset owners, this means informed decisions earlier in the process and far less unnecessary demolition. Every building that doesn’t get torn down is embodied carbon that doesn’t get emitted.
WAS Co – Waste As Raw Material
Mexico produces vast quantities of industrial waste, from plastic to mining tailings to demolition debris, most of which ends up in landfill. WAS Co, headquartered in Monterrey, has developed proprietary formulations that transform these complex waste streams into low-carbon, high-performance construction materials.
The proposition is circular by design: industrial clients can divert their own waste into the production process, becoming sustainable material producers rather than waste generators. The resulting materials are engineered to outperform conventional alternatives on durability and cost-efficiency, making the environmental case and the economic case simultaneously. With operations across Latin America and partnerships with leading industrial players, WAS Co is proving that the construction sector’s waste problem can become its material advantage.
More Innovators Transforming the Built Environment
Digital Optimisation and AI
- Airteam (Germany) converts drone imagery into centimetre-accurate 3D building models for roofers and solar installers, cutting measurement time by up to 90%
- FortyGuard (UAE) provides hyperlocal urban heat intelligence at 10m² resolution using Large Temperature Models, helping cities manage heat and energy demand
- Kestrix (UK) captures aerial thermal imagery of entire neighbourhoods to map heat loss and generate retrofit plans at scale, 150 times faster than manual surveys
- Structure Pal (Israel) uses AI to optimise reinforced concrete designs for high-rise buildings, reducing material volume and embodied carbon without compromising safety
Novel Materials and Low-Carbon Construction
- ecoLocked (Germany) converts local biowaste into biochar-based concrete admixes that store CO2 permanently in the built environment
- Strong by Form (Spain) produces Woodflow-core, a biomimetic slab system using up to 78% less raw wood and 70% lower embodied carbon than concrete or CLT
- SPACECOOL (Japan) manufactures optical films that passively lower surface temperatures by radiating heat to outer space, with no energy or water required
- Wallrus (France) offers patented decorative insulation panels just 3cm thick that reduce building energy consumption by up to 60%
Off-Grid and Prefab
- Haus.me (USA) delivers factory-built, self-sustaining homes with integrated solar, battery storage, and water recycling, achieving up to 80% savings on energy and water versus conventional housing
- Over Easy Solar (Norway) provides prefabricated vertical bifacial solar units for flat and green roofs previously excluded from solar adoption due to structural load constraints
The overall picture is one of a sector catching up fast. Novel materials are moving from lab to factory floor, AI is taking the guesswork out of retrofit and design, and a new generation of builders is treating waste as feedstock rather than liability. The technology is ready. The main bottleneck, as every company here knows, is getting it specified, procured, and built at scale.
