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The Circular Economy in the Built Environment

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The Circular Economy in the Built Environment The Circular Economy in the Built Environment About Arup Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services. From 90 offices in 38 countries our 12,000 employees deliver innovative projects across the world with creativity and passion. Arup Foresight + Research + Innovation Foresight + Research + Innovation is Arup’s internal think-tank and consultancy which focuses on the future of the built environment and society at large. We help organisations understand trends, explore new ideas, and radically rethink the future of their businesses. We developed the concept of ‘foresight by design’, which uses innovative design tools and techniques in order to bring new ideas to life, and to engage all stakeholders in meaningful conversations about change. Contacts Carol Lemmens Director and Global Business Leader Management Consulting [email protected] Chris Luebkeman Arup Fellow and Director Global Foresight + Research + Innovation [email protected] Released September 2016 13 Fitzroy Street London W1T 4BQ arup.com driversofchange.com © Arup 2016 Contents Foreword 5 Introduction 9 The Built Environment: from Linear 15 to Circular Circularity at Scale 43 Enabling the Circular Economy 69 Conclusion and Recommendations 79 Further Reading 88 Acknowledgements 93 - click on section title to navigate - Cover: California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA DRAFT Foreword “Moving towards a truly circular economy will not be achieved in one step. However, this report represents tangible progress on the journey towards a more sustainable, efficient, and resilient future. Arup is in this for the long haul, because, even if it takes a generational shift to get there, the direction of travel represents a far better future for our shared society.” —Gregory Hodkinson, Global Chairman, Arup The systemic nature of the circular economy requires both the ecosystem and its individual components to change. This means that governance, regulation and business models could potentially be even more important to achieving the transition than design and engineering. To get there, a dedicated built environment roadmap or framework is needed, together with a set of guiding principles for the design, engineering and construction sector. This will need to focus both on the economic business case and the opportunities to develop new ways to design and deliver projects. Such a framework would also help to drive innovation opportunities across the industry. 5 DRAFT At Arup, we have committed ourselves to achieving the following five actions: To define effective circular economy design principles for our 1 industry To co-develop and share research that can challenge our 2 industry to apply circular economy principles 3 To develop projects and enable prototyping with our partners 4 To help educate our sector through learning programmes To work with others to articulate the shared values and mutual gains relevant to academia, government, corporations 5 and individuals As a global Knowledge Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Arup is actively building relationships with other organisations from across the Circular Economy 100 (CE100) network. Partnership is a vital part of the journey we are on, and we look forward to finding new opportunities to collaboratively integrate circular economy principles into the built environment. Left: New National Library, Singapore: sunshades prevent direct sunlight from entering the building during the middle of the day 7 DRAFT Introduction The €1.8tn opportunity revealed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reaffirms the economic rationale of moving towards a circular economy. Realising and capturing the benefits of this systemic transition requires a cross-industry, cross-performance, and multidisciplinary approach. —Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016 Decoupling economic growth from finite resource consumption Consumption and use of natural resources has generally followed a linear approach. Materials are sourced, used and finally disposed of as waste. Known as the take-make-use- dispose model, this produces negative externalities that include rising carbon emissions, increased pressures on landfill, unsustainable levels of water extraction and widespread ecosystem pollution. An abundance of cheap natural resources has enabled this approach to endure. However, as the world’s population grows and resources become harder and more expensive to access, it is becoming ever more critical to find alternative means of sourcing and using materials. The built environment sector is a major consumer of natural resources. It recognises the need to fundamentally evolve the processes, components and systems it utilises to obviate waste and increase efficiency. There is an incredible breadth of opportunity that this will create across the entire supply chain. Some manufacturers, for example, are already designing products that can be reused or repurposed. Arrangements to incentivise the return of products are starting to emerge. But there is as yet no clear articulation of exactly how individual companies and processes will need to change across the industry. The impetus required to catalyse this shift Left: Metropol Parasol, Plaza de la Encarnación, Seville, Spain: a network of timber beams forming one of the largest timber structures ever built 9 Linear Economy take make use dispose Technical Linear Economy waste DRAFT take make dump Biological Technical waste Technical + Biological Nutrients mixed up Biological EnergyLinear From EconomyFinite Resources Technicaltake + Biologicalmake Nutrients mixed updump EnergyCircular From Finite Economy Resources Technical Linear Economy Circular Economy waste take Linear Economymake dump Biological take Linearmake Economyuse dispose Technical Technical + Biological Nutrients mixed up take make dump TechnicalEnergy From Finite ResourcesBiological waste Technical Technical Biological Technical Biological waste Circular Economy waste Living Systems Biological Technical + Biological Nutrients mixed up Energy From Renewable Resources Biological Energy From Finite Resources Technical + Biological Nutrients mixed up TechnicalEnergy + Biological From Finite Nutrients Resources mixed up Technical Biological EnergyCircular From Finite Economy Resources Circular Economy Circular Economy Living Systems Energy FromLiving Renewable Systems Resources Technical Biological Energy From Renewable Resources Technical Biological Biological Technical Living Systems Figure 1: AdaptedEnergy From from Renewable Ellen Resources MacArthur Foundation, 2015 Living Systems Energy From Renewable Resources has not yet materialised.Living Systems The structure of the industry also hinders transformativeEnergy From Renewable change. Resources The circular economy concept offers a chance to make the step change needed. It aims to decouple economic growth from resource consumption. Instead, products and assets are designed and built to be more durable, and to be repaired, refurbished, reused and disassembled. This maintains components and their materials at the highest useful purpose as long as feasible which minimises resource waste. By moving away from the linear model to an ecosystem where natural capital is preserved and enhanced, renewable resources are optimised, waste is prevented and negative externalities are designed out. Instead, materials, products and components are held in repetitive loops, maintaining them at their highest possible intrinsic value. As things stand, a global economy predicated on growth is helping to increase the world’s middle class and its purchasing power. This trend is starkly at odds with the finite nature of our natural resources. Ongoing volatility in global commodity markets shows we need to reconsider how society consumes goods. Gradual change is underway. We are already seeing the emergence of a sharing economy. Research suggests that young people are more inclined to rent, lease or share items such as clothes, cars or houses than previous generations. These 10 The Circular Economy in the Built Environment DRAFT Inside Cities exhibition, Arup Phase 2 nascent patterns have spread from the fast-moving consumer goods industry to other areas, including the built environment. This could mean that fewer resources are needed, assets are used more fully and their lifecycles are extended and diversified. Minimising negative externalities The built environment comprises the man-made elements of our surroundings such as buildings as well as infrastructure including transportation, telecommunications, energy, water and waste systems. Design, planning, and construction contribute to the quality of the built environment, which has a significant impact on human health, well being and productivity. Minimising negative externalities is a core aim of the circular economy. In the built environment these include climate change, water, soil, noise and air pollution. They also include less tangible impacts on human and animal welfare, health, employment and social equality. These externalities can apply to both the operation of assets and the sourcing, manufacture, transportation, installation of materials and components, and disassembly. Preventing or minimising these impacts is critical to enhancing natural capital and maximising the use and value of resources. Measures to quantify the cost of negative 11 Minimising negative externalities such as GHG emissions, noise and air pollution is a core aim of the circular
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