Developing regenerate: A circular economy engagement tool for the assessment of new and existing buildings

The transition toward a circular economy (CE) is key in decarbonizing the built environment. Despite this, knowledge of—and engagement with—CE philosophies remains limited within the construction industry. Discussion with practitioners reveals this to be contributed to by a lack of clarity regarding CE principles, with numerous organizations recommending implementation of differing and sometimes conflicting principles. In addition, a systematic assessment of how building designs consider CE is made difficult by the multiple design areas required to be considered and the large amount of design data required to do so. The absence of a systematic CE assessment causes a lack of comparability across designs, preventing benchmarking of CE practices in building design at present. This paper details the development of Regenerate, a CE engagement tool for the assessment of new and existing buildings, established in an effort to overcome the aforementioned barriers to the adoption of CE within the construction sector. A CE design workflow for the built environment is proposed, comprising four overarching circularity principles (Design for Adaptability; Design for Deconstructability; Circular Material Selection; Resource Efficiency) and contributing design actions. In addition to engaging stakeholders by enabling the assessment of building designs, the tool retrieves key data for further research. Information on completed design actions as well as recycling and waste metrics is collected to facilitate future CE benchmarking. “Bill of materials” data (i.e., material quantities) is also compiled, with this being key in material stock modeling research and embodied carbon benchmarking

Product longevity and shared ownership: Sustainable routes to satisfying the world’s growing demand for goods 

It has been estimated that by 2030 the number of people who are wealthy enough to be significant consumers will have tripled. This will have a dramatic impact on the demands for primary materials and energy. It has been estimated that with improvements in design and manufacturing it is possible to maintain the current level of production using 70% of the current primary material consumed. Even with these improvements on the production side, there will still be a doubling of primary material requirements by the end of the century, with accompanying rises in industrial energy demand, if the rise in demand for goods and services is to be met. It is therefore clear that the consumption of products must also be explored. Product longevity and using goods more intensively are two strategies which could reduce the demand for new goods. If products last longer, then manufacturing output can concentrate on emerging markets rather than the market for replacement goods. There are many goods which are infrequently used, these seldom wear out. The total demand for such could be drastically reduced if they we re shared with other people. Sharing of goods has traditionally been conducted between friends or by hiring equipment, but modern communication systems and social media could increase the opportunities to share goods. Sharing goods also increases access to a range of goods for those on low incomes. From a series of workshops it has been found that the principal challenges are sociological rather than technological. This paper contains a discussion of these challenges and explores possible futures where these two strategies have been adopted. In addition, the barriers and opportunities that these strategies offer for 548 AIMS Energy Volume 3, Issue 4, 547-561. consumers and businesses are identified, and areas where government policy could be instigated to bring about change are highlighted

Barriers and drivers in a circular economy: the case of the built environment

The circular economy has moved quickly from niche conversations to mainstream attention. Reports, white papers, academic articles, and guidance are produced in rapid succession, and the world’s first standard on circular economy for organisations has been realised. Most of this body of knowledge has a broad focus, but sectors and products differ, and if circularity is to materialise, a more tailored understanding and approach is necessary. This paper focuses on the built environment, where its constituting elements (buildings and infrastructure) are characterised by long lifespans, numerous stakeholders, and hundreds of components and ancillary materials that interact dynamically in space and time. To facilitate the pathway towards circularity, we have attempted to identify the barriers to and enablers for the circular economy within the built environment. This will form the basis of future work to build consensus on the future development of the circular economy. Technological and regulatorydevelopments alone will not suffice, and a shift is required in business models and stakeholders’ behaviours and attitudes

Design for Deconstruction: an appraisal

This thesis contains an assessment and discussion of the sustainability of design for deconstruction. As a basis for the work, existing literature was reviewed and the gaps in existing knowledge highlighted. Environmental assessment methods were identified as a way to incentivise design for deconstruction. An analysis of LEED demonstrated minimal achievement of reuse credits, likely due to limited availability of reused materials. The supply chain can be developed in the future through the design for deconstruction of all new buildings. Quantifying the environmental benefits of design for deconstruction was underlined as a key strategy to encourage designers to consider the incorporation of design for deconstruction. A methodology was developed to account for designed-in future reuse at the initial design stage. This is based on a PAS2050 methodology (2008) which shares the environmental impact of an element over the number of predicted lives. In the course of this work it has been assumed that the typical building has a fifty year life span, a conservative estimate. Studies in this thesis limit analysis to a hundred year period, giving a possible two lives for the majority of elements. The methodology was used as a basis for the calculation of savings that occur by designing for deconstruction. Initial feasibility studies estimated that a 49% saving in embodied carbon is accomplished by designing for deconstruction. Having demonstrated the potential scope of savings, a tool, Sakura, was developed to enable designers to investigate the savings in embodied energy and carbon for their own schemes. Sakura was used to assess the savings that could be achieved for a range of case studies. Steel and timber frame structures demonstrated the greatest potential savings from design for deconstruction. School projects exhibited the highest savings when the building types were compared

Component-Level Residential Building Material Stock Characterization Using Computer Vision Techniques

Residential building material stock constitutes a significant part of the built environment, providing crucial shelter and habitat services. The hypothesis concerning stock mass and composition has garnered considerable attention over the past decade. While previous research has mainly focused on the spatial analysis of building masses, it often neglected the component-level stock analysis or where heavy labor cost for onsite survey is required. This paper presents a novel approach for efficient component-level residential building stock accounting in the United Kingdom, utilizing drive-by street view images and building footprint data. We assessed four major construction materials: brick, stone, mortar, and glass. Compared to traditional approaches that utilize surveyed material intensity data, the developed method employs automatically extracted physical dimensions of building components incorporating predicted material types to calculate material mass. This not only improves efficiency but also enhances accuracy in managing the heterogeneity of building structures. The results revealed error rates of 5 and 22% for mortar and glass mass estimations and 8 and 7% for brick and stone mass estimations, with known wall types. These findings represent significant advancements in building material stock characterization and suggest that our approach has considerable potential for further research and practical applications. Especially, our method establishes a basis for evaluating the potential of component-level material reuse, serving the objectives of a circular economy