Why are sand protests happening in Saint-Colomban/Nantes, France? Cover image © La Tête Dans Le Sable

Sand underpins lives and livelhoods across the world. ‘Beneath the sands’ demonstrates why there is an urgent need to manage this resource better.
Cover: A sand harvesting site in Rakwaro village, Kenya. Photograph: Sharon Atieno

'But, is it scalable?' is one of the most frequently asked questions whenever the topic of solutions to the sand crisis comes up. One of the key barriers in many regions is a lack of regulation on embodied carbon in construction. Let’s explore this topic further in the context of the UK and the Government’s recent response to the report by the Environmental Audit Committee.

In this guest post, Luis Fernando Ramadon, a Federal Police Specialist from Brazil, shares his research on the estimated value of illegal sand extraction vis-a-vis other types of transnational crime.

In this guest blog, Sheikh Rokon, Founder and Secretary-General of Riverine People, a Dhaka based civil society organization shares his commentary on Bangladesh's switch from polluting clay-fired bricks to concrete-based bricks that are presented as 'eco-friendly' bricks within the country.

This post briefly examines how the geopolitics of sand is playing out in the South China Sea. (Cover Image: Voice of America)

In July 2021, Sweden's biggest cement factory was denied permission to continue mining limestone. This blog examines why a focus on low-carbon cement alone is not enough.

Land reclamation is one of the key drivers of sand mining across the world. The human and environmental cost of this activity is enormous. Cover image credit: The Philippine Association of Marine Science

Did you know that some of the ...ahem…incentives being offered to officials for sand range from the payment of university fees for their children, trips to foreign locations and even sex?

This post examines recent events connected to mineral sand mining in South Africa that are important milestones for Justice.

Remember the fable of the three little pigs? It turns out not only did they fear the wrong wolf, but they also didn't really know how to…

In this episode, Jeffrey Hart and Kiran Pereira talk about the different uses of sand, how we're using one non-renewable resource to get at another fossil resource, various methods of extraction and why we should care.

This post shares details of a key webinar on the use of recycled aggregates from Construction & Demolition Waste in India.

In this guest post, Otshabile Bahetoleng, an Environmental Assessment Practitioner, shares the impacts of river sand mining in Botswana.

When Ms. Singha tweeted about land reclamation that can be gentle and sustainable - without pouring sand into water, we simply had to know more! Here is a short piece that she shared with us.

Sand mining for construction aggregates often gets the lion’s share of attention but sand is also mined for various industrial minerals. Our main story this month unfolds in New Zealand.

In this conversation, Frazer Stokes, the founder of WasteBuild offers fantastic examples of projects that are helping to deliver circular outcomes for the built environment today.

Yes and No. Here’s an example from the UK. In this video, Joanna Thomson, Trustee of the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust explains why the Trust was set up.

The Architects Climate Action Network's ‘Save Safe Structural Timber campaign’ opposes the UK Government’s proposal to ban the use of safe structural timber. This proposed ban impacts on sand too.

In this guest post, t4u, an IT services provider based in Bengaluru, India, describes their IoT-enabled solution to the looming sand crisis.