Bangladesh produces roughly 23 billion fired clay bricks each year. Behind that number sits a heavy environmental cost. Around 7,000 brickfields remove an estimated 9.5 million cubic metres of topsoil annually, leaving farmland uncultivable for years. Brick kilns also account for a major share of pollution and emissions: about 22.5 per cent of national annual carbon emissions and roughly 13 per cent of greater Dhaka’s air pollution, according to government and World Bank reporting.

In 2019, the government set a phased transition away from fired bricks toward alternatives such as concrete blocks, soil-stabilised blocks, and autoclaved aerated concrete. Targets increased from 10 per cent of government construction in FY 2020 to full substitution by FY 2025.

On paper, the policy architecture looked unusually strong.

  • The 2022 PWD Schedule of Rates includes a full concrete block chapter with item codes and technical specs.
  • Procurement guidelines permit environmental criteria in tender evaluation.
  • Bangladesh Bank’s green refinancing facility has expanded to Tk 1,000 crore.

Yet implementation has lagged. Field estimates suggest that only around 30 to 40 per cent of government construction uses alternatives, and a new deadline is now under discussion.

The Exploratory Study: A Missing Middle

From April to September 2022, our PEDL-funded exploratory study surveyed 480 contractors across 16 districts and conducted key informant interviews with engineers, procurement officers, and block producers.

The practical question was simple: if policy, schedules, and finance schemes already exist, what prevents uptake?

Three constraints appeared repeatedly:

  • blocks are not consistently available near sites
  • workers and masons lack practical training in block construction
  • tenders often omit block item codes, making block-based bids non-compliant

These are coordination failures, not technology failures.

Survey evidence also highlighted weak awareness of policy details. Many contractors had never seen block specifications, and misconceptions on cost or structural performance remained common. The market structure reinforces this uncertainty: the block market is roughly Tk 120 to 200 crore, while the burnt-brick market is around Tk 50,000 crore.

What We Found Inside the Bureaucracy

A May 2025 consultation with Public Works Department officials revealed a familiar pattern. Senior and field officers largely supported the transition in principle, and many expected some districts to reach full substitution. But implementation concerns dominated when discussion moved to site-level execution.

Engineers repeatedly pointed to quality inconsistency among local block producers, especially where low-pressure machinery and weak curing practices are common. Hollow blocks may crack if curing is poor, and compressive strength failures push engineers back to fired bricks.

District-level testing capacity remains thin. In some offices, routine testing is delayed or skipped due to logistics and laboratory constraints. Design compatibility also matters: concealed electrical and plumbing work needs standard templates, and missing templates create delays and rework.

Another hesitation comes from unresolved debates over embodied emissions. Some officials worry cement-based blocks may increase emissions upstream, while others emphasize lifecycle gains through durability, reuse potential, and maintenance savings. In practice, unresolved technical disagreement sustains administrative caution.

Three Frictions That Keep the System Stuck

1) Procurement Design

Many tenders still follow older schedules without block item codes. If an item is absent from the bill of quantities, contractors cannot legally bid with it. Engineers then default to brick templates because template deviation carries personal risk.

2) Weak Inter-Agency Coordination

PWD has a complete block chapter, but other implementing agencies update schedules at different speeds. Engineers working across jurisdictions face conflicting guidance, and the safest operational choice becomes the material accepted everywhere: fired brick.

3) Access to Finance

Bangladesh Bank’s green refinancing scheme exists, but producers report collateral barriers, long paperwork cycles, and branch-level incentives that still favor conventional loans. Certification requirements can also create a chicken-and-egg problem for new entrants.

These frictions reinforce one another. Procurement exclusion lowers demand, low demand limits producer investment, low investment weakens quality, weak quality increases engineering risk, and risk pushes procurement back to brick.

The Ongoing RCT: Testing Low-Cost Coordination Fixes

Our ongoing randomised controlled trial targets these administrative bottlenecks with practical, low-cost interventions:

  • standardised bill-of-quantities language with block item codes
  • supplier maps and directory tools for site-level sourcing
  • light-touch training for engineers, procurement officers, and workers on specifications, curing, and failure diagnosis

Impact estimates are not yet available, but early implementation feedback is informative. Participants consistently report that before sessions they lacked practical information on block quality standards and supplier verification. After sessions, confidence rises in identifying compliant products, locating suppliers, and handling construction requirements.

This does not yet prove behavioral change at scale. It does, however, clarify the likely binding constraint: uncertainty, not resistance.

A Practical Reform Agenda

Evidence from the exploratory study and ongoing trial points to reforms that are administratively feasible and fiscally modest:

  • harmonise schedules of rates across implementing agencies
  • standardise tender templates so block item codes are always legally admissible
  • improve credit access by easing collateral frictions and fixing branch-level incentives
  • expand district testing capacity for routine quality verification
  • publish district-level block adoption dashboards for accountability

No new law is required for most of this. The key inputs already exist. What is missing is the institutional scaffolding that connects policy intent to district execution.

The Broader Lesson

Bangladesh’s bricks-to-blocks transition illustrates a broader implementation problem in environmental policy. Governments often set ambitious goals and build technical frameworks. But procurement behavior, inter-agency alignment, and frontline administrative risk management evolve more slowly.

When guidance is inconsistent and compliance pathways are unclear, frontline officials rationally default to the status quo. Policy then stalls not because of ideological opposition, but because adoption is not administratively safe.

Our field sessions suggest a clear opportunity. Engineers, contractors, and workers are not inherently against cleaner materials. With usable standards, predictable tender rules, and practical information, willingness to adopt rises quickly.

The transition will depend less on announcing stronger directives and more on delivering reliable district-level procedures. Once that scaffolding is in place, the shift from fired bricks to cleaner alternatives can move from policy text to routine practice.

Notes on Sources and Fieldwork

Policy milestones and target timelines are drawn from ministry statements, the Brick Manufacturing and Kiln Establishment (Control) (Amendment) Act 2019, and national media reporting (including The Daily Star and The Business Standard). Environmental estimates are from the Department of Environment and the World Bank. Procurement framing reflects CPTU communications and independent assessments. PWD Schedule of Rates references correspond to the revised 2022 volume (Chapter 30). Bangladesh Bank financing details follow Sustainable Finance Department Circular No. 02 (August 30, 2023).

Field evidence comes from PEDL-supported work: a 480-contractor survey, key informant interviews, and ongoing RCT intervention sessions focused on information and coordination barriers in the transition from fired clay bricks to concrete blocks.

References

  • Aziz, S. S., A. Barai, R. Kamal, and M. Sulaiman (2023), “Bricks to blocks: An exploratory study of policy and practices in the construction sector of Bangladesh,” BIGD/PEDL Research Report.
  • Bosio, E., S. Djankov, E. Glaeser, and A. Shleifer (2020), “Public procurement in law and practice,” NBER Working Paper No. 27188.
  • He, G., S. Wang, and B. Zhang (2020), “Watering down environmental regulation in China,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 135(4): 2135-2185.
  • Kirchberger, M. (2023), “Construction in developing countries,” Annual Review of Economics 15: 625-651.
  • Mongabay (2026), “Brickmaking keeps eating farmland as Bangladesh misses clean-build goal,” 15 January.
  • The Business Standard (2024), “Eco-friendly concrete block industry far from target amid market hurdles.”
  • The Daily Star (2024), “No more burnt bricks in government construction.”