The article discusses Portugal's National Building Renovation Plan (PNRE), highlighting its shortcomings in effectively promoting sustainable construction. Despite the sector's significant contribution to global carbon emissions—responsible for nearly 40%—the plan primarily focuses on reducing emissions from energy use within buildings, neglecting the reduction of embodied carbon from materials and design. Key issues include the lack of clear, operationalized targets for integrating sustainable materials, insufficient measures for renovating vacant homes (which could help address housing shortages), and the absence of a detailed, phased implementation roadmap with defined responsibilities and regional considerations. However, the plan's creation of a National Network of Recovered Construction Materials Banks is a positive step toward promoting material reuse and environmental sustainability in construction.