This session explored the benefits and roles of key actors in a building’s value chain in implementing the principles of a circular economy. Best practice case studies were highlighted to demonstrate how buildings can be designed, constructed, managed, and maintained to minimise the environmental impact and resource use of a building over its entire life cycle.
Speakers included:
– Kisa Zehra, Global Sustainability Thought Leadership Lead, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
– Matthew Webster, Head of Environmental Sustainability, British Land Plc
– Janet Lynch, Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency Lead, Arup
– Anna Foden, Head of Sustainability, ISG
Resources referenced during the session:
– UNEP & GlobalABC – 2021 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction: https://globalabc.org/resources/publications/2021-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction
– RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment Guidance: https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/building-surveying-standards/whole-life-carbon-assessment-for-the-built-environment
– British Land – Portfolio Developments: https://www.britishland.com/about-us/our-portfolio/developments
– British Land & Arup – 1 Triton Square Development Project: https://www.arup.com/projects/1-triton-square
– British Land – Exchange House Development Project: https://www.britishland.com/sustainability/our-views/exchange-house
– European Commission – Categorisation system for the Circular Economy: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ca9846a8-6289-11ea-b735-01aa75ed71a1
– Arup – Circular Buildings Toolkit: https://ce-toolkit.dhub.arup.com/
– Arup – Brent Cross Substation: https://argentllp.co.uk/2023/01/19/iconic-new-public-artwork-revealed-at-brent-cross-town
– Arup – Burrell Renaissance Project: https://www.arup.com/projects/burrell-collection
– ISG – Net Gain Strategy: https://www.isgltd.com/en/services/sustainability
– ISG – Development Projects: https://www.isgltd.com/en/projects
– ISG – Entopia Building for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership: https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/about/entopia-building
– ISO 20887:2020 – Design for Disassembly and Adaptability Standard: https://www.iso.org/standard/69370.html
– Mayor of London – London Plan Guidance Circular Economy Statements: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj9tdLvuIj9AhWSUsAKHVAGBHUQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.london.gov.uk%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fcircular_economy_statements_lpg.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3JmxiQ2t4ciqbz3FLMj_LV
– ICMS 3 – Standard for Carbon Reporting: https://ww3.rics.org/uk/en/journals/construction-journal/icms-3-standardises-carbon-reporting-across-sectors.html
– EU Circular Economy Action Plan: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/circular-economy-action-plan_en
– EU Renovation Wave: https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-efficient-buildings/renovation-wave_en
That’s my cue to begin so hi everyone my name is Steve Kenzie I’m the executive director of the UN Global compact Network UK it is my pleasure to welcome you to the opening session of our six-part transitioning to a circular economy webinar series today’s session is going to be focused on
Circularity in the built environment before we get started though uh just a bit of housekeeping firstly this session is being recorded the recording will be made available after the session is over um secondly we are in webinar mode and that means that our audience will be unable
To unmute during the session however we are still very keen to hear from you and there are two ways for you to communicate with us firstly uh is through the the Q a box at the bottom of your screen you will see a button if you have a question that you
Would like to put to our panelists this is the place to put it um and once we get to our q a session um that’s where we’ll be looking to for for your questions um but it’s not only just uh there for those of you that have questions to pose
We would also like everyone to be actively participating in voting for the questions that you’re most Keen for us to answer we’ve got quite a large um audience today and we we may well uh get more questions than we can address so it’s really helpful if you would keep
An eye on the questions that have been uh posed and click on the Thumbs Up Button if it’s a question that you’re Keen for us to answer because we will focus in on the questions that have um the most support if you just want to
Chat there’s a chat box for that if you want to comment um on something that you’ve heard if you want to say hello as as some are doing if you want to share your your LinkedIn profile by all means use the chat for that we’re really we’re really happy for
For that sort of dialogue to take place and also we encourage you to keep an eye on the chat box because we will be posting lots of useful links in there if you want to go deeper into any of the topics that we’re discussing that would
Be really useful also of course if you have any technical issues our team will be monitoring the chat box and we’ll do our best to help you out there uh last bit of housekeeping is we have activated automatic captions which you can choose to accept in the toolbar
Um please do note though that uh these captions are generated automatically by Zoom so um do forgive any typos or mistakes that are made by the program okay let’s uh get going on to the next slide today’s webinar is being brought to you by the UN Global compact Network UK part
Of the UN Global compact which is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with more than twenty thousand participating companies globally our initiative is built on a foundation of 10 Universal principles for responsible business that have been drawn from un treaties in the areas of Human Rights labor environments and anti-corruption
To join the initiative requires a commitment from your CEO to operationalize our principles throughout your operations to report annually on your progress towards this end and to support the wider UN Agenda our role it’s to support primarily uk-based numbers but obviously we’re keen to engage um globally as well
Um we want to support you in fulfilling the commitments that your CEO has made and we do so by organizing over 100 engagement opportunities every year to inspire and enable corporate sustainability if your company is not already participating in the UN Global compact please do get in touch there’s a
Link that’s just gone into the chat where you can get some more information about the work that we do and how to join okay let’s go to the next slide please a very big part of our mission is to drive business engagement with the UN sustainable development goals also known as the sdgs
The goals provide a comprehensive and coherent roadmap to create the future we want and business has a big role to play in achieving the goals so generally I encourage you to think about how your work impacts on the sdgs and to that end I would just like to flag that
Today’s session is particularly linked to goal 12 which calls on us to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns but of course the goals are quite interlinked and several more are highly relevant so if you’re not already framing the work you do in terms of sdgs
I would encourage you to do so and of course a lot of our programming will will help you with that so one more great reason to get in touch okay let’s move on to the next slide in today’s session as I said we’ll be focusing in on the importance of
Adopting the principles of a circular economy into the built environment and most importantly how to go about actually doing that to help us we are joined by a fantastic panel of speakers first up we’re going to hear from Kiza Zera the global sustainability thought leadership lead at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Next up will be Matt Webster head of environmental sustainability at British land and then Anna foden head of sustainability at isg and lastly Janet Lynch circular economy and resource efficiency lead at Arab we may I mean by all means start putting your questions into the into the chat box
Um sorry oh no into the Q a box um as soon as they come to mind um and we’ll keep an eye on them and we may post some in between speakers but mostly we’ll wait till the end um when we can have uh a q a session with everybody together
He says I said it’s Gonna Get Us started with an overview of the current state of play around circularity in the built environment some of the key challenges that the sector is facing and how companies can use whole life cycle carbon assessments to reduce the environmental footprint of their
Buildings and so over to you Kiza thank you hello thank you Stephen good afternoon everyone from the UK or wherever you are um as Steve mentioned I’m going to be speaking about uh the circle economy the importance of the circle economy across the built environment sector uh the
Barriers and the challenges that firms and organizations could face when implementing these approaches but also speak about some of the key enablers and then I will end with some of uh discussing the rscs projects in this area namely the whole life carbon assessment for the built-in right sector
And moving on to the next slide not only is the built environment responsible for almost 40 percent of global carbon emissions is also a major consumer of raw materials and natural resources and a major producer of waste estimates by the European commission for example suggests that construction and
Demolition account for around 25 to 30 of all what are waste generated in the EU study did completed by defra a few years ago by the UK actually suggested that this share could be around 40 to 60 percent so there’s a huge amount of waste that this particular sector is
Generating globally and that’s why adopting Circle economy practices is so important and practice uh prioritizing recycling reuse can significantly address this problem it can also reduce the pro the demand for key materials such as steel aluminum and plastic and reduce CO2 emissions that are linked to the usage of those materials
But for this to happen stakeholders need to rethink how they designed the built environment and how can buildings be designed today so they can meet the needs of the future and how prior Recycling and reuse can be prioritized um across the whole construction value chain um the sector must focus on making waste
Valuable so moment we are thinking about the materials we need to think about buildings and infrastructure assets as Bank of materials think about the social and financial value that is attached to those materials and then also understand and work on how they can be reused or repurposed and that’s a key element of
The circular economy approach and buildings also need to be designed so they are adaptables for different purposes um in the future so they need to be designed for multi-purpose use um but obviously these sectors these practices not very not very much very common across the sector as a whole
Globally and there are many reasons for this moving on to the next slide and there are some barriers um that I have listed and these probably are probably the top four but there are many others um one of them is the fragmented nature of the industry so the diagram shows the
Different path of the product life cycle um there are different stakeholders involved in each sector in each part with different priorities and different objectives um and the fact that the the very much all of these different sections are very much fragmented means that a lot of information is not shared between industry participants
And for a circular economy approach can be fully embedded across the sector information and knowledge needs to be shared between throughout the whole construction and product life cycle um but that isn’t happening at the moment um lack of data is a huge problem so there’s lack of data around material you
Use for example material composition how materials can be reused in the future um cost is a huge problem as well mainly because implementing these circular economy approaches requires the industry to adapt to new Behavior patterns and the new processes all of which comes at a time and a cost because these practices
Are not common across the industry at all and right now um so and it’s it’s a lot easier to sort of dispose of the materials rather than actually analyze their reuse and recycling options and make make those reuse and recycling um actually happen so it comes at a time
And of course for professionals and so and so this is one of the reasons why the practices might not actually be done um shortage of Knowledge and Skills among professionals is also a huge barrier and professionals do not understand uh a how they can benefit from the circular economy transition but
Also about their role when it comes to Circular economy approaches what do they need to do to embed circular economy process um in their day-to-day tasks um but at the same time they can be they can be some enablers that can address some of these problems a collaboration among industry participants is
Incredibly important so as mentioned the industry is very much fragmented but collaboration sharing information and knowledge amongst those different aspects of the construction value chain in significantly address the problem and help embed Circle economy approaches um into into the construction life cycle um digital tools so building passports material passports can this definitely
Help as well as Bim software to sort of collab to have all that information into what particular to store tool um a tool that different industry participants can have access to and that way information and key data around materials and assets can be shared and can be used to make decisions
Um education and awareness and training is a huge part piece of the puzzle um the whole built environment needs to be educated and trained on the importance of circular economy practices the importance of recycling in reuse and how to embed those practices into their day-to-day tasks and government
Policy is incredibly important as well um the sector is not going to change by itself it would need a push um and government policy can actually help the sector Stay Stay the sector into that type of Direction public private Partnerships and scalable projects that demonstrate the benefits of a circular economy could be
Incredibly important and can incentivize incentivize the industry and to take on these approaches and apply it to their own projects investors also have a key role to play into providing the the investment the funds and for these approaches to be embedded into industry but also to fund Research into new valuation techniques
Um that can help value sort of waste and assets and components moving on to the next slide um rscs is working on um addressing these these issues um one way in which is doing this is working on the whole live carbon assessment for the built environment um the first edition of this guidance
Was published in 2017 it was designed to provide a consistent and transparent whole life carbon assessment plan and Reporting structure for for the sector as a whole um the the professional statement was indeed not just aimed at surveyors it was actually aimed at um the whole built environment sector from Engineers to um
Engineers to surveys to sustainability analysts to designers um and it has been adopted globally as well um this updated about the reason for the update is that the existing version is open to a number of assumptions and this updated version will allow for a slightly more accurate reliable and
Consistent whole life carbon assessment um the idea is to make sure to ensure that carbon assessment becomes mainstream across the built environment sector um and this will apply to both buildings and infrastructure assets globally it will also incorporate the latest and great definitions for carbon and Net
Zero terminology so Define what do what do these ad things actually meet when it comes to this sector and then and this will help enabler clear understanding and approach it will also have additional guidance and retrofitting and refurbishment um so alongside new Builder says it could it could also apply to
Retrofitting and refurbishment assets and again this is to provide a level of consistency but also make sure that professionals can use this carbon assessment on a case-by-case basis um globally as well in terms of circular economy practices it will encourage future repurposing of building components so it will Define
What circular economy principles are it will encourage professionals to adopt these approaches um it will allow professionals to sort of understand and analyze and think about how materials can be reused and repurposed so in the event for a deep in the event of a demolition or deconstruction professionals will be
Encouraged to try and think about you know how these materials can be reused and repurposed as well and finally the club the whole life carbon assessment would also try to promote a long-term thinking plan for professionals to help designers professionals can help be designed buildings that can meet the needs of the
Future and also design buildings for multi-purpose use again just to make sure that we embed that long-term thinking and ensure that the built environment is designed in such a way today so it can meet some needs of the future in the coming 20 to 30 years
I I will stop there but happy to answer any questions on this later thanks very much Kisa that gets off to a great start um frankly ridiculous number of questions have already come in so um that’s fantastic so I’m gonna have to really again urge our audience to keep
An eye on that q a box and help us out by giving the thumbs up to the questions you’d like us to focus on um so that we we are talking about the things that are of most interest to you also delighted by all the action in the
Chat box let me just uh flag to to everybody to make sure that when you send a message a lot of the messages are just going to the host and panelists which may well be your intention but if you were trying to um communicate with
Everyone just uh have a look at the blue box um above where you might be typing your message and make sure that it’s going to everyone if in fact that’s what you want to do okay now we’re gonna just switch over our host Matt’s gonna come in and we’re gonna
Matt’s gonna do his own slide so let’s hope we have a nice seamless transition uh to that amount over to you thanks Dave yeah trying my best for a um seamless transition here I’m used to another digital platform for doing presentations on but um uh let me there we go
Yeah I think I made it can everyone see that one if my panelists can nod their hair stuff yeah love it that’s great so uh Matt Webster from British land um I’m head of environmental sustainability here uh British land is a UK focused um property developer and manager
Um we’ve got properties uh across the country with a focus on Central London campuses but retail parks and shopping centers across the breadth of the UK um I’ve been asked to give a quick overview of our sustainability strategy and then some case studies of where we’re starting to implement uh circular
Economy thinking uh within our business uh so I wanted to start off with this statement uh which kind of defines us our approach to sustainability so ensuring that every decision we make by each and every one of us is environmentally and socially intelligent as well as making fine uh sound
Financial sense and that’s Central to our kind of core strategy which is creating places people prefer um trying to get our sustainability strategy onto one slide there are two key pillars to it achieving a net zero carbon uh portfolio by 2030 and then creating long-lasting positive impact
Through our social impact and our social program um my expertise and focus is on the environmental side of things so I’ll stay there for today um so Net Zero by 2030 um what does that mean well as a developer and an operator of space where there’s two key sources of carbon within
Our uh within our business the embodied carbon associated with the development of uh of our assets and the operational carbon associated with running those assets um so we’ve set some pretty stretching targets to get us at zero by 2030. that’s a 50 reduction in embodied carbon at our developments so starting to
Implement the Rick’s whole life carbon assessment and measuring that across all developments and then we’ve taken the decision to make all developments uh Net Zero to offset the remaining carbon in our developments from April 2020. we’ve implemented something called a transition vehicle so we have a carbon Levy in our developments that gives
Carbon a price and we track that through the design and then we actually pay that money into a transition vehicle at PC and then we’re using that money to fund the retrofits that we need to undertake to achieve our operational targets our operational targets are around improving both the energy and the carbon
Performance of managing our assets so we’re aiming to reduce our our operating carbon by 75 percent uh coupled with a target of improving Energy Efficiency by 25 percent and then there’s other bits to this but I’ll come on to the circular economy really because we’re not going to
Achieve the embodied carbon uh targets that we’ve set without implementing some uh the circular economy principles or uh innovating with low carbon materials um this is our version of the Rick’s diagram um so I guess the key message that I wanted to get across here is thinking
About whole life carbon and that is Central to Circular economy thinking in that you consider all of The Upfront carbon in your developments but track that all the way through so the operating carbon uh during the use of the building but then also the end of life situations and it’s at the
Beginning and at the end that secularity is really important but then I’m also really interested to to hear one of the follow-up presentations from isg around how we might track and reduce or Implement circular economy during the the use phases of building as well so how are we aiming to achieve our
Targets well the two things up front here is reuse and recycle so prioritizing the ReUse of existing structures and materials within a building and then where we do need to introduce new materials ensuring that they’re low carbon specified and then as an action of last resort we’re looking at certified offsets
Um to mitigate any unavoidable carbon from our developments and so when we start to think about implementing the circle economy in real estate it’s really those two ends of the spectrum and then having a process flow all the way through the middle so starting to see existing buildings as a
Kind of Library resource Banks or resource hotels as we’ve got here so undertaping mapping exercises on our existing assets where they are up for refurbishment or Redevelopment and understanding where materials are located in that building and it’s really trying to change the mindset from Demolition and Disposal to
Um seeing with seeing buildings as resource libraries so storage of materials and then when we do need to move materials off-site shifting those materials or and using them elsewhere and so you can flow through here starting with an existing building the old Route there in the in in the
Blue disassembly upcycle where we can um recycling but more often than not uh kind of down cycling and moving materials and deconstruction away well we’re really where we want to get to is disassembly storing materials repurposing and remanufacturing and then bringing them back into site or into another application and reusing them
And so we try to map the existing materials uh through a process flow so directory use where we can and that will be within site and on-site upcycling within campus so are we able to use any of our materials on any of our other development projects either on campus or
Across across the rest of our portfolio more often than not uh you know there’s some unique and bespoke materials use where we can repurpose kind of really valuable materials into other applications on a site and I can show you an example of that in just a moment
And then last but not least how can we reuse materials off-site now some of that is down cycling but it can also be you know shifting that material and there’s an example later on of where we’ve been able to move a still frame from one building and using on a
Different construction site within the UK so when we come on to my uh kind of pin board of um case studies that I could talk about and I’ve selected three or four of these to go forward but it’s just to give you on the materials reuse side of things
We’re looking at things around how you can reuse glass the still frame that I mentioned and reusing that selling it and and making sure it’s used off-site um tiling has been um an interesting one for us some whole life carbon analysis on some Stone cladding on one of our buildings
Um whether that actually makes sense from a carbon perspective to repurpose that as a floor tile which means you have to send it off and get it crushed and then bring it back to site or is it actually better to send that out and um have it reused as a kind of an
Aggregate elsewhere and then on the the other side of things where we can’t directly use reuse materials what are we innovating in terms of low carbon materials or the processes that need to sit alongside to Innova to implement a circular economy um so things like materials passport that’s been mentioned a digital register
Of all products going into a building we’re doing some really interesting work with demountable beams so making sure that we can get the still back out of a building at its end-of-life situation um so a good example of upcycling is uh aluminum upcycling at a development
Project of ours at 2 finsby Avenue uh so there’s quite a lot of high-grade aluminum already in this building and we’re looking at opportunities to repurpose and reuse that within a bathroom setting and so here I’ve put in the process flow that we’re going through so that’s disassembly taking it
Off site uh the requirement to store that whilst the building is um is fully developed um repurposing it so ensuring that that material is of the the quality that we’re looking for and of the dimensions Etc so it can fulfill its next purpose and then bringing that back into into
The site and reinstalling it and reusing it um similar uh case study for a building that’s recently completed one Triton Square here uh this was going for a major kind of deep retrofit um and uh we looked at how we might retain the glass facade on this building
This was in collaboration with Arab so you can hear more uh from Janet at the moment but um we actually went back to the manufacturer of the glass facade they were located in Germany but had a good conversation with them about some of the challenges that were mentioned earlier about re-warrington
Um some of the costs with doing this does it make sense to send all of that facade all the way back out to Germany from a whole life carbon perspective and then bring it back to the UK but actually through collaboration with this particular manufacturer we were able to
Do a pop-up Factory uh near much nearer the site within the UK where we sent off the facade it was repurposed uh gaskets put back around it we oriented and then bought back to site and actually put back onto the building so that’s a a really good example of direct reuse
Taking materials from that site and then using them again on the same site uh indirect reuse uh Second Life raised access floor uh with it trying to implement this across a number of buildings this is an example from a refurbishment at exchange house and so you can see the material flow here
Actually understanding what is available within the building uh unfortunately the the raised access floor here um needs to be repurposed so we actually bought secondhand resaccess for from elsewhere into this building um some challenges within this uh I think there was a question in the Box already around legal requirements uh one
Of those being building regs so how do you get this past kind of building Rigs and the biggest one being fire safety and warranties but we’ve been able to overcome that here and then installed a repurposed um raise access floor sorry the pictures not too exciting because raise access floors aren’t literally a
Metal plate across the floor plate that then our customers will come in and fit out workspace on top of um last but not least we’ve mentioned um materials passports we’re implementing a digital uh platform at a new development for one broad gate and so this will be a digital register of
All of the main building components that are going into into this building um mapping those and tracking those and making a digital register so that when this building uh you know we’ve mentioned flexibility and adaptability already um this building is designed for at least 60 years but at end of life how do
We get the value back out of that building how do we extract materials back out so a good upfront record keeping is really important and Central to be able to doing that and so we’re implementing a digital register here um just draw your attention to the diagram in the bottom left corner
Materials passports buildings passports have different life spans as I’ve mentioned and this one here is really playing at the longer term thing so looking at the still beams the aluminum facade the glass that’s gone in to this building those big kind of ticket items that make up the vast majority of the
Volume of the material in the building um but we’re also then going to expand our thinking into what does the three to ten year life cycle look like for materials in this building and how do we start to track those because they will turn over a lot quicker so if we can
Have success there then we’re likely to reduce the whole life carbon impact of this particular building through the Innovation we need to do with those materials um so that was a quick counter through kind of four examples of um of where we were where we are implementing circular
Economy and more than happy to take uh questions on that as and when appropriate thank you thank you very much Matt anybody that thought uh bringing circularity to the built environment has I think now been disabused of that notion so uh thanks very much for that
Um Rob we’re ready for you with there we go with Janet’s slides and now um without any any further Ado Janet over to you thanks so much Steve um so I’m just going to run through what circular economy means to our and a selection of our current projects and
Some of the features of those um so next slide please um Arabs um corporate strategy is that sustainability is everything we have a sustainability strategy called a better way and circular economy is one of the six principles within that strategy so we’re mandated to implement circular economy in all of our projects and
Throughout our activities so this is a very positive move um on behalf of Arab as an organization what’s shown on the screen is what circular economy means to Arab designing at waste and pollution keeping products and materials in use at their highest possible value and the Regeneration of natural systems
These align with the objectives of the Ella MacArthur Foundation the thought leaders in circular economy arap has a partnership which we’re very proud of with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and where they’re built environment knowledge partners and that’s been very good to us in terms of projects and work
In recent years so next slide please um the European commission put forward a nine or categorization of circularity that’s quite useful in communicating to project teams what’s meant by circular economy and the most circular actions which you can take on a project controversially the most circular action
You can take is not to build at all it’s or one or refuse the asset and that’s at the top of this graphic on the screen keeping existing Assets in use um is is also a circular approach and one that’s put forward for example by the mayor of London and their planning
Approach to Major projects and their guidance which is fantastic to see in terms of refusing the assets what’s shown on the screen is a graphic we often put forward for transport projects you’re intensifying the use of an existing asset or you’re designing out the need to construct an asset rule uh
15-minute towns or um is an example of this in the transport space the least circular approach you can take is recycling where you’re breaking out an asset and losing its inherent value next slide please in conjunction with the Ella mccarthur Foundation we’ve created the Arab circular buildings toolkit the framework
Has been compiled by circular economy experts across Arab and puts forward a framework for embedding circularity within your projects it aligns with the levels framework and also with World Green Building Council approaches to circularity it’s a platform it covers all design stages and it also includes circularity assessments and benchmark apis
Next slide please in terms of ongoing and recent projects in recent weeks the Brent Cross substation project was unveiled it’s an iconic artwork at the entrance to the Argent Brent Cross project it’s essentially a wrap on a substation it’s a landmark piece of art made from recycled steel so 50 of the structural
Steel was salvaged from unused oil platforms and so the embodied carbon emissions was reduced by 40 concrete was a combination of low cement concrete and earth-friendly concrete it also included rewilding of a Brownfield site connected to a wider network of green infrastructure so this was led by Bend lover in our
Arab London buildings team particular features are the recertification of the Steeler practice which wasn’t the norm in the industry and um so working through that pathway was really beneficial for the engineers there and resulted in a fantastic outcome for the client next slide please um this is a project which I lead and
It’s um circular transformational change of an organization we work with the transport infrastructure Ireland who are The Authority in Ireland responsible for construction and operation of the National Road Light Rail and Greenway Networks we’ve created a circular economy policy and strategy for tii we’ve also they write the standards for
Road and Light Rail and Metro in Ireland and we’re working with them to embed circularity within those standards to enable project teams to deliver circularity in their projects and to deliver on their circular economy policy and strategy so it’s been a fantastic project both for the client in terms of
Outcomes and also for art next slide please the Burl Renaissance project in Glasgow is um a retrofit project um so this um building houses um a world leading art collection donated to this issue of Glasgow by Sir William Burrough so it’s over 8 000 objects are contained within the
Building and the purpose of the building was an energy efficient retrofit and they’ve achieved the highest pre-own rate impossible but it had some fantastic circular economy features which enabled achieving the goals of the project so the four kilometers of aluminum glazing bar were removed and reused within the project and
Um inspected cleaned and re-certified so that resulted in a hundred and tons of CO2 equivalent emissions being reduced and new aluminum uh being refused essentially which was fantastic to see there was a closed loop created in terms of glass so there was Architectural Glass release which again hasn’t been
The norm in the industry until now and has been quite challenging so this was a fantastic achievement for the project team on this project it was led by Bill Smith in Arab Glasgow and next slide please um so this is a particularly interesting project again in terms of standards and
The practical application of circular economy our highways engineers in Germany work with Hawk teeth it’s a PPP project and 40 kilometers of Motorway widening um the existing pavement was reused 100 of it was reused in the new project standards in Germany are not currently written to enable reuse so it involved a
Lot of work from the design team’s perspective to demonstrate that the new road surfaces would um and the new design would be equivalent in terms of service life and durability testing to the use of Virgin materials the result was 250 000 cubic meters of Virgin asphalt to
Use was avoided through reuse of the road so that was a fantastic outcome for the client uh challenging for the design team to establish the workflows and the testing required but um the outcome was fantastic for the project um and for all involved next slide please
Um so the final project just to Showcase is around circular procurement and this is a project undertaken in Arab Australia with our client mtia and it’s known as ecologic and it’s a supply chain education process essentially so the big build in the state of Victoria involves the upgrade and of the road and
The rail infrastructure to it throughout the state so it’s a significant infrastructure on behalf of the state of Victoria investment on behalf of the state of Victoria the supply chain were awarded five percent of the tender price in um the tenders for sustainability and circularity and reuse of materials and
The pro the program is called recycled first um the outcome is that 1.3 million tons of material was reused but the pathway wasn’t clear for the supply chain and they needed um they requested guidance and needed guidance on how to achieve the required percentages or the the available percentages in procurement the
Arab team prepared recycled content guides in Road and rail for the supply chain uh a platform was developed and webinaries were delivered and the steps which might be taken and the material specifications for reuse in that instance um were developed in conjunction with the client and ruled out and
Communicated with the supplies chain so again the outcomes were fantastic and the barriers were identified and the tools developed um to overcome those I think that’s the last example from me today so thank you so much for your time and um please feel free at the end just to ask any questions
Thanks Janet and the questions are already flooding in so uh we’ll definitely be coming back to you um a few uh I think especially your your early slide um potentially controversial so I I’m quite Keen to to Circle back and explore that further but before we do um our last speaker
Um Anna over to you thank you Steve hi everyone um greetings from Sunny London um so my name is Anna foden I’m the head of sustainability I’m at isg we are a global contractor so I am bringing you the the builders perspective here um so at isg a few years ago we
Developed a suite of four strategies that are really are have been our Guiding Light in terms of what frames our sustainability um perspective and the circular economy is a huge piece of that and so we think these are the four key drivers for us right now it’s time for revolutionary
Change as we’re saying and so we want we really want to use platforms like this as a call to action so on the next slide um you will find just some key challenges that that we think um you uh out in the world and us are facing around the circular economy and I
Do want to stress that these are not insurmountable challenges but they are the challenges that exist out there and I see in the questions some of you some of you have already started to address and ask about them so um the first one is keeping the future
Benefit in mind you know how can we design for building and reuse um and for future projects that module D and that um in the framework of of of carbon warranties in Providence this is a huge one I find that this is often a huge barrier people are very scared to
Reuse materials if they don’t know if they’re still warranted and if they don’t know where they’ve come from program can we give ourselves some extra time there’s some great things that can be done but sometimes program or schedule however in the world you say that um your schedule or program could be
Really prohibitive so if if this is a driver on your project how can we allow for a bit of extra time there um Logistics this is this is a really really big issue for us as contractors because we handle a lot of materials but
How do we if we do want to reuse them how do we transport them from site to site how do we inventory them properly and how do we store them and let let our industry know that they exist for reuse and then someone’s touched on value in one of the questions
Um you know where is the value and the value for these reused materials might be different uh depending on your client depending on the drivers and the brief of the project is the value is the value of material and the cost is it the program saved is it in the carbon
Um and and is there a consistency in our industry that can be be gained by analyzing that a bit more so now I’m going to go through some examples I think examples you’ve seen them through some of the other speakers I think giving you guys examples on
Putting this stuff in use is just really inspirational so great to see the other speakers um you know give real world examples on how some of this stuff is actually happening so um in in the fit out worlds which is where I had come from a few years ago a
Big piece of this and I can expand for other projects that aren’t fit out commercial fit outs we’re trying to create a reuse Network and a big piece of that is just simply joining up our projects and communicating across our Global Suite of companies and projects
That we have this material and it is available so an example here the top left-hand picture was a six-story brand new cat a fit out in central London and very sadly a tenant was coming in and they were going to strip out the entire six floors which is always very stating
Is a sustainability professional to see so what we did was we very carefully stripped out a lot of material I’ve listed it all there ceiling tiles insulation panels lights and we we homed almost all of it the lights were a big win for us because they were brand new
We were able to send them back to the manufacturer get them re-warranted and get them reinstalled in another one of our own projects at the Cambridge Institute for sustainability leadership the intopia building next slide please and keeping on the intopia building if you haven’t read about it please google
It there are some fantastic um examples of of of circularity here amongst other fantastic sustainability drivers but what we were able to do here um is Implement a few other examples of circular economy so the steel on the roof if anyone’s been on the roof there came from an old movie studio
Um we were able to get the original testing certificate so we were able to have that material prominence and give the client um that that piece of paper that they needed to know that this material was okay to reuse so we were able to get it we CE marked and reinstalled safely the
Bottom photo there is an example of a piece of joinery a really beautiful reception desk that was stripped out of one of our projects that was completely reusable the original joinery subcontractor took it back made it a bit smaller for us and we reinstalled it again at the intopia building next slide please
Um so you know engaging our supply chain is a really huge piece of the puzzle for us they have fantastic ideas um they know how to do things differently sometimes um and so for this particular project it’s the same project where that original reception desk came out of in
The previous slide that I showed you there was a major brief uh from the client and from the architect from Perkins and will on this project we need to do a much better job of of reusing materials and thinking about how materials in the future could be reused so
Um some examples were stripping out old door frames and turning them into stairs stale hand railings another example is that the staircase was designed to be completely um dismountable so bolted connections instead of welded connections would uh you know Timber framed so you know again thinking ahead when this fit
Out is no longer needed or the client wants to change or a new tenant comes in thinking about how these things are going to demount is a big piece of the puzzle and designing for flexibility for someone in the future so that they can actually reuse it so rethinking some of
Those things like connections and joinery um and then we we talked about um next slide please um we’ve got a lot of mention of materials passports which is fantastic because I think this is one of the big keys to unlocking the circular economy um they will enable us to create Banks
Material Banks we do have material Banks they exist in every built asset out there they are a bank of materials just waiting to get reused materials passports can help de-risk that process and help us have that um that kind of solid knowledge of material provenance and and be
Um you know a much more acceptable material that we use because we know where it came from and we know where it’s been and we know what kind of Maintenance has been done on it and it just in general um these material passports whatever software you choose to use them on if
You’re doing a them on Excel if you’re tying them into your Bim model um they’ll just really help promote and feed that circular economy so I’m really really glad to see that a lot of other companies are starting to embark on that process and we’re going to create that
Bank of materials for reuse I know someone asked about um consumerism I think if these materials exist out there and people know about them and we’re doing a good job of documenting them then we we will have those materials in place for reuse um and that is it from me guys again I’m
Happy to take questions as well thank you Anna so now we’re going to um stop sharing slides and I invite all of our speakers to put the cameras on thank you for that wow fantastic thanks um thanks for all of those uh amazing uh contributions and and thanks
Um for all the great questions and comments coming through the chat so much to work with here um I really struck I guess in every one of these presentations and and I think you know most recently was that that point of um I think from Janet it’s just
Around where is the value and and I think this is a obviously in any of these projects costs are going to be a a key driver and I’m curious to understand a lot of these activities sounded expensive and so how do we deal with it if if the
Recycled product is more expensive than new and are we to what extent are we relying upon carbon savings or reputational benefits to make up for um uh perhaps higher costs or have I got that completely wrong and are there savings to be had it just you know my my sense from this is
Um it’s also new that we’re on a a journey and maybe those cost savings are coming maybe could we start Janet maybe because I I think it was you that started with that that value Framing and then we could uh we could hear from others um there are lovely examples like the
Broiler Renaissance project where the architectural of the aluminum glazing Bars were reused so we were able to realize a financial saving there so there was a financial saving um of um let’s say hundreds of thousands of pounds essentially um over the use of Virgin aluminum but our clients their decision making in the
Space is more complex um in recent years so they have um uh commitments to reduce carbon they aim to achieve very high briam ratings for their buildings so their life cycle performance of their buildings comes into their decision making so it’s no longer just an economic um decision that they’re making the
Environmental obviously the carbon considerations come in and more and more clients are considering um the uh biodiversity and the regenerative aspects of the decisions that they’re making taking so it would have started in the UK the environment agency would have embedded um within their projects a requirement for biodiversity net gain for example
And that’s recently been legislated for and so this brings it into the mind of our clients and um so they’re taking account of other decision-making factors so um in some cases I would say while Finance is still very much in their minds and those assessments are always done
Um so uh the uh Financial neutrality of a decision and possibly an investment in a whole life cycle beneficial decision in relation to design will be driven Now by carbon more so biodiversity I think thanks Janet Matt do you want to come in and uh because I think similarly you gave us so
Many great examples um interesting to understand the drivers better yeah thanks so um I think he framed it really nicely at the start that this is um quite an Innovative and um emerging and maturing area uh so if like just reflecting on my um raised access floor
Case study for example we did see a cost saving on that one um you know that was cheaper at the time but I think as awareness and um ambition uh across my peer group with achieving Net Zero and um working towards you know the ambitious targets that we have set
Um as as an industry for Net Zero then the value of second-hand materials is increasing in terms of their well their costs rather than their value um and so yeah we are at the start of that and then a lot of the examples I’ve given I think have been kind of bespoke
Opportunities for materials reuse and upcycling that we’ve seen um the one Triton Street glass that was definitely a cost saving there it worked out a lot cheaper to repurpose and um and clean up and reuse that glass facade than purchasing a new facade system so there was there was genuine Financial
Benefit there but I think um just back to Keith’s presentation some of the barriers that we’re facing in terms of scale and data and Industry uh awareness of materials in the marketplace so creating a creating a Marketplace for circularity I think is is where then you’ll see parity or
Reductions in cost once we’ve um yeah once that once we skip we need to scale up to bring the costs down I think I’m almost afraid to ask but I guess I’m Duty bound uh you’ve given us fantastic examples but in terms of uh the proportion of the you guys are
Representing quite big companies the the proportion of your total you know portfolio of projects I I trust we’re seeing the circularity growing but is it is it most projects could we go so far as to say that or we still have even ways to go to get to to that level
Um so from a British land perspective I think it goes back to Janet’s Point as well that we have set um this embodied carbon reduction of 50 by 2030 and that is across our development pipeline so all of our developments um whether they’re major refurbishments deep retrofits or new builds are aiming
To implement in them aiming to innovate in their materials use and so if I look at Canada water that is a regeneration project uh in the rotherhide peninsula so the bit that sticks out in the in the Thames um that’s all new build there there are no existing structures to make use of
Um but we’re innovating with some of the things that uh Janet has mentioned so uh low carbon steel um cement Replacements in our concrete mixes their modular construction so you can do it off-site and get much more efficiencies um and so this is happening I think for us right across our development Pipeline
And that’s really driven at the moment whilst we don’t have an overall building kind of circularity metric the the carbon and embodied carbon is becoming good proxy for that and aiming for the the targets that we set at a development level uh is really helping to drive that Innovation and and materials
Um materials reuse foreign similar story at Arab yes um so we’ve committed to measure the whole life cycle carbon of all of our projects and as a result we’re holding um so it’s quite similar to the situation with Matt we’ve um undertaken it for all of our
Projects so as a result we have a massive Bank to the largest bank of data regarding carbon and projects so what this enables us to do is to make evidence-based choices then and to bring about change so and um it’s happening across all of I would say um similar to
Matt across all of our portfolio buildings but as you can see from the case studies what that looks like for each structure is quite is quite bespoke and quite and and and and and each project might be different um but the principles underlying the change are the same it’s measurement
Evidence-based and moving forward um with our clients because there is a lot of innovation um and a lot of I suppose systemic changes required so we’d use a lot of systems engineering um as well looking at things like standards um so we’re making rapid progress
Um and there’s just a there are a few barriers still um that Anna would have set out as well in Kisa that we’re working with our sub our supply chains and our ecosystem um to overcome foreign like to hear from you on that question and then I I’m really interested in circling back
To the value like crazy to me crazy example of totally fitting out six floors of a building and then tearing it down again how was the value of that exercise sort of shared out between the the building owner the the incoming tenants the just some sense of of how
How that all worked out would be great and then um Kisa I don’t mean to ignore you but I’m I’m saving up bringing that first question at the top of our q a list to you um so we’ll we’ll go to the to the Q a box um after we hear from Anna
Right thank you Steve yeah a few questions there so um you know we we are um like um you know um Arab and British land we are implementing policies internally so that we can help capture all this data as well um for examples on the materials
Passport front um our aim is to do uh for every job that we have that’s a Bim level 500 job or above that might not mean a lot to some people I’m sorry um that we we Implement a materials passport procedure there um I think the bit the unknown part about materials
Passports for us is we can give a client all the data they want but if they’re not going to use it and maintain the living breathing thing that needs to be a materials passport then perhaps that’s not the right project for that um but um and then in terms of the value
Um you’re thinking specifically of that that project that got stripped out um that was an interesting one um the incoming tenant had no desire to keep any of it program was a driver and they just wanted it out so we saw a huge opportunity there that married up quite
Nicely with another project which turned out to be the intopia building where um the client kind of had the exact opposite mindset is let’s make this building as best as we can and make it a shining examples of all things sustainable so um and it’s interesting you mentioned we
Were mentioning value and cost savings the example with the lights um with getting them stripped out getting them re-warranted and storing them until they were ready for installation was still cheaper than buying brand new lights for that project so we did do a cost analysis there
Now granted not every job has the the pre-construction um period that that job had and so we had some time to sort that project and that process out which is why I mentioned program some of these things do take time so I would love to see more of time built
Into some of these projects to allow us to do these great creative things so that it does become the norm so yeah I think I think it all comes down to some of these bits are valuable to some but not to others you know one person’s trash is another person’s treasure and I
Think clients and us we all have a different idea of what’s valuable um and you know all the things that got stripped out of that building were quite valuable to the people that received them nice thank you okay let’s um let’s get stuck into the very many questions that
Are are waiting for us so um with so many again I I really urge our audience to get in there and give a thumbs up to the questions that you’re you’d like us to focus in on um there is a question here from uh Tim that’s been at the top
Um for a while and and kiss I I’d like to go to you there first so Tim asks um to know of any other countries which have clear and robust legislation to drive a circular economy rather than simply regulation for Waste Management I’m assuming you’ve got a a bit more of
A global picture from your your role at Rick’s and Tim also invites you know the audience to to comment on this so by all means um everybody else can Pop answers into the chat or panelists into the written answer but um Kisa what can you share about that
I think the EU action plan the EU action plan for buildings and then the many policies that are targeted towards developing a more sustainable built environment is pretty impressive um namely because they have a range of different policies that are aimed to that one particular policy goal so we
Have the EU renovation wave we have the eppd um there’s also the levels framework which has also been mentioned and there’s also a financial strategy as well um to just to make sure that we have the finances sort of support these activities across the built environment
Um one one reason why the all of these policies are great was because they target sustainability and therefore circular economy approaches in a range of different ways um they help they can help to nudge the sector and that’s what we need we need to nourish the sector and stay the
Sector towards developing you know a more sustainable practices and professionals and getting professionals to think about how they can you know improve their practices in their day-to-day life um and how it’s you know they can support sustainability in the built environment so the EU the EU also has a
Circular economy action plan someone’s already written that in the chat yes uh that’s uh that actually came out earlier um so all of these different policies I think are support of a circular economy but I think one thing that is probably missing that I haven’t actually seen
Um from any country is a document or a legislation that defines key performance indicators for circularity so what does success look like how do we measure it um what are the particular standards that apply to it um that is something that I believe is missing so why was the EU policy is a
Very much a great start and I know and I believe they can make a huge difference given that they’re targeting circularity and sustainable buildings through a range of different approaches we would need some kind of kpis and some kind of framework to sort of Define what the
Success look like when it comes to circularity in the both environment sector thanks Kisa does anyone else want to come in with a um Matt you did type in a written answer but do you want to just maybe say something about what they’re doing in the Netherlands uh just complete yeah
Sorry and I think I I somehow tried to do a live answer rather than type my answer so apologize if it went off your list but no I was just highlighting the Netherlands as I’ve seen that as a good case study they’ve got ambition to be a
Circular economy with zero waste by 2050 and then some of the the good Innovations we’re seeing um are coming out of the Netherlands um but also the nordics um working quite closely with a couple of consultancies based over there um but really embedding uh circular design principles into kind of Master
Plans for new buildings there’s a a new town built just outside shiple airport which has really embraced um complete circular thinking uh in its design and then there’s also a head office of a rather large Financial Dutch financial institution called Circle which is based on kind of buildings reuse and um again
Designed for disassembly um which has been a really good example um they’re also kind of leading the charge on Seeing buildings as the resource libraries that I mentioned in my presentation um going as far as looking at techniques for crushing concrete to separate the cement from the Aggregates so you can get that back into raw materials to reuse again and again so that’s my high level
Um kind of overview of what they’re doing out there any other countries anyone else wants to to flag out Janet um there’s pockets of I suppose Forward Thinking I agree with Matt um so the UK the mayor of London um is very forward thinking in in looking at
Its circularity statements for its large developments the circus projects London and Copenhagen for built environment is lovely in terms of innovation and I know from the engineers in London who are looking at recertification that that’s happening there and um processes are starting to become more normal for the
Research vacation I agree with Marsh and the Netherlands the use of their environmental cost indicator broadens out um the in procurement the notion of value from cost to carbon and other environmental indications so that’s a lovely Innovation there France the right to repair law and their
Circular economy Act is is also I think very Progressive where your phone for example can be uh repaired and you have a right to that in law and that’s quite a circular approach as well so there’s great Pockets around the EU that would be great to see and in the UK scaled up
I’m getting a feeling that this is one of those panels where everybody everybody agrees so uh thankfully it’s super interesting so I I you know offer that that can be a problem um are there are there any big philosophical tensions where there is a bit of a conflict where
We got a country going in One Direction and another going in another um Anna you spoke about some you know challenges um is there a concern about perhaps regulations addressing those challenges in ways that are not necessarily compatible and coherent or are we all kind of racing in the same
Direction at different speeds um and so we can just kind of comfortably say on right to repair let’s look at France on concrete let’s look to Netherlands and let’s all just go faster um yeah and it’s interesting um I’m I think a lot of us are moving in the same
Direction I think kind of very specific to my world in in the contractor world um I think one of the challenges we have is with manufacturers um and you know there are some manufacturers that have a fantastic kind of closed-loop system in place um I think there are pockets of
Excellence around a closed loop system but there are um some big manufacturers out there I will not name names um that are very resistant to the idea of taking back their products taking ownership of their products re-warranting them and getting them back out onto the market I think that is a
Big challenge for us um in the construction world I think if we can get some of those big kind of worldwide manufacturers on board with some of this stuff I think it would really really go a long way I think there is some resistance there
Um you know I think perhaps they I’m not exactly sure what but I think it’s probably economically driven um but um I think we just do all have to change our mindsets and I think um yeah like I said there are some manufacturers who are doing some great stuff in this
Space and I think we should look to them but there are some I think could use a bit of a shelf oh I know they did go by through the chat somebody somebody suggesting that there would be a rule for the tax system uh to help strengthen
The incentives for for recycling and uh couldn’t agree more that that’s a missed opportunity um uh on on the part of regulators there okay uh next question at the top of the list from Molly um and we touched on this uh Molly would love to learn more about the link
Between circular economies and nature-based design is learning from nature a component of achieving circular economies so it has come up we’ve been pretty focused on carbon and Matt you explicitly said you know it’s a good proxy for measuring circularity and and Anna you you or sorry Janet you touched on this as well
That um it’s a bit more carbon driven um so maybe Kisa could I come to you first on this one though just you know in in your in the Ricks um tool yes I mean I’ve I’ve seen a number of examples of this of countries and communities coming together design structures and buildings
From sustainable materials so materials I think I believe there was an example in Africa where um a church was designed entirely um from materials that these communities that found out just in in a forest and the reason why um that perhaps more actives are incredibly low-cost building
Um just because and it was they actually designed them by themselves and the the key aspect of that building was that it was designed in line with the the nature and the environment according to that particular space um so it embodied a sort of the the light coming in and and the temperature
And those sustainable materials because they were from that particular environment they were able to adapt to that particular environment and to those those community and church needs so yes it’s using sustainable materials using local materials um uh is it is a key aspect of this a secularity and an example of nature-based solutions
Um designing buildings according to the nature according to the environment that that building is particularly in but also um ensuring that you know those buildings actually operate and function in a way that we want them to so they are low cost and they are easy to maintain and they can actually serve the
Purpose that they need to so I think there is a key bridge to to to fill between using the sustainable materials by ensuring that those buildings actually achieve their objectives so um perhaps we need further research into that particular area but definitely nature-based Solutions are a key component of circularity yes thank you
Does someone else want to come in on this one that Molly’s question I mean I mean I wish I’d written it because I’d like to know more as well but um it prompted me to think of another example from our portfolio where we’ve been working closely with a company called biome
Um so on our Region’s place um campus we spent quite a bit of time with them mapping all of the operational waste so coffee granules orange peels a lot of Waste Paper a lot of waste cardboard um and then looking at those materials and seeing how we could turn them in
Sorry looking at that waste stream and seeing how we could turn it into a materials um a materials stream and they’re actually able to kind of grow or bioengineer some of those waste streams into useful building materials so we’ve got a couple of lamp shades made from
Them now out of those waste streams um we’re working well there’s a prototype around a um a wall finishing made from the the coffee granules that came off the site um smells amazing has very similar properties to gypso and plasterboard still the challenges remain around how we get the building industry
Um comfortable with using that type of material how you get it fire rated how you get it water resistant and things like that but there are pockets of of innovation um happening in there I mean nature-based resign is for me all about Nature’s able to rejuvenate repair itself
Um and and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do when we’re implementing the the circular economy so I think there’s probably lots more to learn there okay let’s move on we have a lot of questions outstanding and this is one that we we touched on from Christoph is
The first step to circularity not to stop tearing down old buildings because they don’t suit the ambition of owners and Developers um Janet you you spoke to this directly potentially controversial statement that recycling was the worst um um way to go but of course except for not recycling um and so
I I think you know not to clearly it’s better than than nothing but not as good as as reusing and and further on the line but um we do live in free countries I’ll avoid getting too political at this point but owners and developers who else is going to make
These decisions so do you want to start off anyways Janet yeah um I suppose I mentioned earlier the incentives the mayor of London incense um uh in their planning process for major projects requests that developers start from a starting point of reusing existing buildings so we’re very proud of the
Troitian square project that Matt presented earlier where the glass was reused and the facade was reused and um so there are challenges around reusing existing buildings in the Burl collection um renaissance building is an example of that we wanted to reuse the glass but it was impossible to do what we did in
Croatian Square where the panels themselves were removed and stored in some cases you can maintain the properties of the panels um through workflows and careful storage so we recycled in that case into Architectural Glass and um so it’s unavoidable because of the production methods used in the past for some
Products that we would use recycling so our focus is twofold we reuse as much as we can so that the Energy Efficiency and the performance of the product and the building is maintained so a life cycle decision-making framework um is put in place and then where we
Can’t then if we have to smelt and reuse in terms of architecture or glass or a feature like that we do but the real solution here is the design for disassembly where we’re rebuilding or where we’re sorry where we’re building new that we embed design for deconstruction principles in and future
Generations there’s value in the building and financially that’s an interesting proposition because it means that your building is future proofed and will be stranded because that Timber that steel that concrete whatever the material is the elements can be reused in the future and have then they have economic value associated with them
That is so interesting there’s a whole webinar in that um these are voluntary measures presumably there’s no building codes that are yet um there’s an is yeah there’s an ISO um 20887 for design for deconstruction and then um a nice template again is the circularity one
From the mayor of London and it would include um guidance in relation to the design for deconstruction um so when a whole life cycle approach is taken designed for deconstruction is then incentivized and also Financial models um are starting to take account of um the inherent value in the building
And the inherent value in the materials themselves and the elements that was going to be my last question about that was does it add to the value of the building so there is an incentive from the start okay um we’re rapidly running out of time so I maybe happily our very first question
That we had posted from Ayan it may well be our last uh question that we get to um a bit on the philosophical side but um I I think it’s worth a look aeon asks does capitalist induced Global consumerism not directly oppose the theory of a circular economy um
Again there’s a whole webinar there um Anna do you feel like commenting on that yeah very interesting question um and yeah I think we could write um Masters the Master’s thesis about this one and get into the whole economic discussion I don’t claim to be an
Economist but what I will say is yes people like to consume if they had the option I think a lot of people nowadays to consume something that is of equal value of equal cost um and is still a sound product that has a lot of life left in it I think I
Genuinely think a lot of people would go for that option the challenge is getting enough stock and and getting our industry in a place where that becomes the norm and we’ve already identified a lot of challenges around that but like I mentioned before they are not insurmountable we have some fantastic
Pockets of Excellence that we’ve all shared with you so again I use I like to use these panels as a a bit of a sounding horn to let everyone go out and go forth and and really try to implement some of the stuff on your projects
You’ll learn a lot and it will become the norm so I think people yeah in summary I think people would consume a perfectly good reused product if it was available to them in the quantity that they needed it anyone else want to come in on this one I’m I’m thinking we um
You know we’re really down to the wire time wise but um the next question from Claire it really does get out the essence I suppose of this and so I’m thinking let’s wind things up with um I’m going to read out Claire’s question but then I’ll ask you all to either
Answer that and or um if there’s anything else that you didn’t get to say um that you’re really hoping to get out there during this session this would be your your chance and and you’ll have about a minute to do it so Claire asks us how do we proceed how do we persuade
Clients of the merits of the circular economy that they don’t need a clear flat site every time and that reused materials don’t mean a lower quality scheme so why don’t we go in the order in which we started um and yeah answer that and or anything
Else that you wanted to to squeeze out and so Kisa would you start us off it’s all about value isn’t it so attaching value to waste so if clients think and attaching value to materials and components recyclable and reusable materials and components so if clients think that those materials have some
Type of value and those buildings and those components are banks of materials with some kind of value attached to them they would like to use them and that’s why new Research into those evaluation techniques and those valuation tools is so important so I think attaching value would be
Probably the key component of that of that aspect um one thing that I did want to mention was your point about costs alongside carbon so um rscs has developed Global standards um that actually in that actually engage with cost and carbon together are icms 3 standard which allows carbon and cost
Reporting to be assessed and reported in the same way so professionals can use that standard to understand the trade-offs between reducing carbon um and the impact that it has on the on the cost of the project so that is one standard at least one tool that professionals can use to analyze the
Carbon and cost implications for their particular projects fabulous thank you Matt you’ve got one minute one minute thank you well I’m I’m I have to flip it because I think I’m in the fortunate position of often being the client and so for us it’s a question of
An innovation it’s a lot easier for us to achieve our um ambitious embodied carbon targets of 500 kilograms per meter squared of carbon equivalent for for a building if there is opportunity to reuse structure foundations or materials on site and so what we ask of our supply chain is bring forward
Innovation and give us um solutions to reusing and retaining that where we possibly can whilst also delivering the end product that we’re looking for that will lease well that will be attractive to our customers but will have a long flexible and adaptable life and retain its value over the longer term
Thanks Matt I think that that’s a really interesting important takeaway isn’t it that the the value of of reused materials goes beyond it’s just its structural role in the building and that there are um lots of other benefits that can be rolled in and considered Janet your turn
So I suppose circularity for for me provides the tools so we as a profession of the tools to address kind of the major challenges of our age so biodiversity loss and climate change so we can look at our projects and how do they create value can we add in design
For disassembly regenerative design can we absorb carbon with our projects and sequester it can the project act as a material bank or kind of grow food so it’s all about creation of value I think for the industry going forward in the coming years sorry you think after two years I would
Be able to find the unmute button I think gosh I feel like I’m just saying everything over again um helping clients understand the value in what exists already um what’s what’s the the statistic out there 80 of the building stock of 2050 already exists um so capitalizing on that
Um taking some of these stranded assets um and then investing a bit in them um I think there is a lot of value in that um showing them sometimes it is showing them the cost savings or perhaps it’s the carbon savings there are other data points we need to give our clients to
Show them the value of what can be provided and it does go beyond costs um and I think the more and more that people will have to perhaps start paying for their carbon that will probably come into play as we move uh towards 2050. so I guess watch this space
Indeed and and we will okay um Rob I think we’ve got a slide for us and we’re gonna we’re gonna finish off with me um just reminding everyone as I said at the beginning that this is a multi-part a six-part series of webinars and um I I’m certainly confident that the rest of
The series is going to be just as interesting as today’s session was so next up on the 22nd of February we’ll be looking at critical metals and minerals um exploring the roles of key actors within the clean energy and automobile value chains in maximizing resource use reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
Pollution by creating more circular business models and products um there’s yeah there’s the link um disappearing fast but there’s a link in the chat or visit our our Global compact Network UK website um where you can register for that session do bear in mind that registering for today did not register register
Register you for the whole series so do um do check in and sign up for the other sessions as well session three on electronics four on packaging five food and Agriculture and six on fashion and textiles um we have great speakers again all lined up and we’re really looking forward to those sessions
Um thank you very much to uh Kisa Matt Janet and Anna for your um contributions today being so generous in sharing your your wisdom and your fantastic examples it’s been really interesting thanks to the audience for being so engaged um I think we may have broken a record
With the number of questions you’ve posted and and for being just so Lively and engaged in the chat we really appreciate that it makes makes these sessions um much more fun um we’ll be coming back to you with a link to the recording and key takeaways
Um in the coming weeks and we look forward to seeing you all again soon thank you very much for joining today thank you everyone thanks everyone thank you bye
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Saying hello From #CampSerenity ~ GardenCity..