Embedding circular economy in Towns
Isobel Vernon-Avery
Why should towns embed circular economy principles into their projects? Adopting these principles can help ease some of the challenges of material price rises, support job growth and help meet net zero targets. This blog discusses some of the ways towns can embed circular economy into their projects and towns.
What is the circular economy?
The circular economy addresses challenges such as pollution, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. As a framework, the circular economy provides a tool to address the challenges that follow the linear economy - the take, make, waste economy. As a system, it provides the levers to enhance prosperity, jobs and the efficient use of resources. It is good for business, people and planet.
How can circular economy help towns?
Material reuse and cost:
Data from the BEIS shows that the average cost of materials across the construction sector was 23.5% higher in August 2021 than in August 2020.
One of the primary pillars of a circular economy is to keep materials in use at their highest social and economic value for as long as possible before being mined for future use. Adopting this pillar reduces the demand for virgin materials which have experienced rapid price inflation and depletion in recent months. Recent projects that adopted material reuse strategies have experienced cost savings in the face of the current material price rises, as the Brent Cross case study demonstrates below. Designing buildings as a material resource bank for future projects helps to address cost challenges. Materials already owned by the council can be reused; second hand materials from other providers could be sourced; or materials could be leased.
Brent Cross Town has focused in on steel reuse in their scheme (led by Related Argent). Conscious of the project and organisations net zero carbon pledges, circular economy approaches were adopted – specifically relating to reused steel. The team identified surplus steel available to be used in the building design. Getting the contractors and designers onboard early was important and this also helped mitigate risk in the reuse project. The reuse of steel was a commercial success story – steel prices have grown rapidly in recent months. Reused steel has kept its price relatively stable in comparison and therefore was more cost effective for the project. Learn more here.
Material reuse for net zero:
HM Treasury’s Green Book challenges towns to meet Net Zero targets. The greatest opportunity for reducing carbon in the built environment is through material reuse, which maintains embodied carbon – the carbon locked into our bricks and mortar. Almost half of a building’s carbon is embodied and can therefore be cut by following reuse principles. The first strategy to address this is to simply build nothing, to keep and repurpose what is already built. The second is to design and build for the circular economy and long term value, to minimise materials used and maximise spaces created.
1 Triton Square in London kept the glass façade of the building during a refurbishment project. The project achieved a 44% reduction against in carbon against London new-build regulations and a 43% cost saving compared to typical commercial buildings.
So with benefits like these in mind for towns, how can circular economy principles be embedded within towns and action taken? Below outlines three areas that towns might wish to consider:
Early design interventions:
For new projects, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation found that 80% of environmental impacts are determined at the design stage. By assessing what is currently built, and adopting a ‘build nothing’ first, refurbish second and last option to build new can help towns keep their assets in use longer, as well as encourage design of new buildings now to be developed with longevity in mind together with ease of reuse of the construction materials. A lot of this comes down to setting the appropriate design requirements for town projects at the soonest opportunity.
This toolkit provides strategies, policy information and workshop materials to help in circular economy discussions with stakeholders and has a library of case studies.
Public Procurement: circular economy principles and criteria can be applied to purchase various products and services such as buildings and furniture among others. By focusing on the desired outcomes and benefits to identify the products needed, local authorities can leverage their purchasing power to design and build sustainable, prosperous towns. EMF provides helpful guidance here on how to integrate circular economy principles into your procurement.
The local authority Bromley, with Re.London, is developing a circular procurement toolkit in order to embed reuse and sharing models within their activity. A video following on from London CE Week will be available here.
Circular Economy Strategy: setting clear expectations for the local or combined authority can steer development across the board towards a circular future. It is important that strategies complement each other, for example Waste Management or Climate Action Plans can include circular economy actions.
In 2019, Devon County Council launched its “Devon Carbon Plan”, a roadmap to achieve net zero by 2050. This plan includes built environment ambitions and targets in terms of retrofitting and net zero new build, which align with circular economy principles. This has helped developments, towns and stakeholders understand the expectations for their work.
We hope that you are able to incorporate some of the ideas raised here as your town organisation and community shifts to a circular economy. If you have any questions, please do reach out via your Town Coordinator and we will support where we can.