One year on for ASBPs last Reuse Summit, I was keen to find out what progress had been made. Highlights from this year’s event included Tina Paillet, President of RICS and co-founder of Circotrade, who kicked off proceedings highlighting the role professionals in the built environment have in enabling a circular economy revolution. She also highlighted the central role reuse of materials has in achieving overall decarbonisation. 

ASBP’s Katherine Adams and Debbie Ward gave an update on what ASBP have been doing since last year, including the practicalities of reusing interior glass partitions and DISRUPT II, the steel reuse project. Leandra Hope from Grosvenor showcased their work in reuse and the need for businesses such as Resource Xchange to provide storage solutions between strip-out and fit-out phases of developments. Tom Shillingshaw from Lazari Investments gave great insight into the practical challenges of the reuse of materials in their portfolio. He described the difficulties in reusing fire doors that would need

re-testing and re-certification. 

Roy Fishwick of Cleveland Steel and Tubes described how they have undertaken EPDs to provide granular detail of the carbon emissions for individual reused steel products. Howard Button, ex-CEO of NFDC and now a Reusefully Associate, showed images of how reuse was commonplace historically although health and safety measures have improved considerably! 

Stephen Dorer from Deconstruct UK presented a flagship project at 20 Giltspur Street. Steelwork from the original structure was reused in the extension, and the floors were ‘jacked’ (raised). This process, which took just three days, saved £2 million and 30 weeks on the programme which was really impressive. Debbie Ward from ASBP then went on to highlight the Rebuild Site in Wolverhampton, a community reuse initiative, and Darcy Arnold-Jones of Marks Barfield Architects the Circular Do Tank initiative. 

Flavie Lowres from the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) closed the event, highlighting the reuse potential in the fit-out sector, which accounts for 11% of construction costs. With buildings undergoing around 30 fit-outs in their lifetime, and refurbishments every 5-7 years on average, the impact of reusing fit-out materials are huge. FIS are calling for donations of luminaries and metal ceiling tiles for their pilot reuse project. 

So how much progress had been made? The pace of change does seem to have increased year-on-year, witnessed by the rise of intelligent platforms to record inventories of buildings as materials banks which are surely a step in the right direction. 

However a number of challenges still remain which mean we need to redouble our efforts.  Issues such as how to include the cost of climate change in the full economic value of assets, and how to reduce the cost of reusing materials need further attention. 

Overall, the key facts from ASBP’s campaign speak for themselves. Every 10 minutes globally we will extract 50,000 tonnes of iron ore, 5 million bricks will be produced and the construction and demolition industry will create 38,000 tonnes of waste. In just one year the industry emits approximately 10 gigatonnes of CO2, the equivalent of around 30 million Boeing 747 jets, so there is still much to be done!