With greater concerns about climate change, many will be shocked to learn that 50% of all energy use is caused directly by buildings. This is why trying to make buildings more energy efficient is such an important task. 90% of that is the energy consumed by the building whilst in use, whereas 10% is the “embodied energy” – the energy used to manufacture or mine for the materials and the energy used during the building process.

From comparing Embodied Energy, Weight, life, material resources, recyclability plus other things, we can determine that the most sustainable options for roof cladding are timber shingles. This is closely followed by natural slate – this is on the basis that these materials are obtained from a local source (or at least within the country). Slates, concrete and clay tiles will be available second hand somewhere quite local, so this is also something to consider when picking sustainable roofing.