Circular Economy

In Circular Economy materials are retained in use at their highest value for as long as possible and are then reused or recycled, leaving a minimum of residual waste. Buildings that promote circular economy aim to be net zero-waste. Optimal circular economic goal is to keep on reusing materials. For example, you could unbolt your window and put it in the next building without breaking or refurbishing it; or reuse steel beam as it is, without recycling it. Recycling is good because it keeps the material in the flow; but it is one step down from reusing. Recycling typically includes some sort of process and there are transport, water use and energy use involved.

Circular economy is not associated with clarity: there are a lot of ways to think about it. UKGBC’s Circular Economy guidance specifies how to practically apply circular economy principles at the project brief stage:

• Reuse (including refurbish and repurpose)
• Design buildings for optimization
• Standardization or modularization
• Servitisation and leasing
• Design and construct responsibly