Reducing Material Consumption: From Christmas to the Built Environment

Drawing our minds back to our work for a moment, we recognise that the Yuletide pattern of consumption is one that continues to be mirrored in the way we currently manage resources in the built environment, where the demand for new materials and the disposal of old ones creates a substantial environmental footprint. However, the main difference between these two scenarios is that the built environment consumes resources throughout the year, irrespective of the season.

In the UK, the built environment remains responsible for some 60% of material use and waste generation. The sector’s persistent reliance on ‘delivering new’ means primary materials and the unnecessarily frequent replacement of building components, still results in excessive waste and considerable ecological harm.

At Pick Everard, we are committed to embedding sustainability drivers into both design and organisational processes, to create positive and lasting legacies for our clients and communities; a substantial part of this is helping clients implement circular economy principles.

Here are our top five recommendations for exploring circular economy opportunities in your projects (whether that’s managing your Christmas-related impacts, or a built environment project):

1. Reduce material consumption – Explore ways to minimise the need for new materials - can you buy less or leaner?
2. Maximise reuse and recovery – What resources do you currently have to hand that could be reused, instead of automatically reverting to the ‘everything must be new’ paradigm?
3. Design for reuse – Incorporate circular economy principles into our buying practices: how can we make it easier for everyone to recover valuable materials from purchased goods, and hence save money in the future. (Check out the recently published IEMA guide for circular procurement here)
4. Consider whole-life benefits – Focus on decisions that balance upfront costs with lower operational and material costs over an asset’s lifecycle.
5. Explore ‘products as a service’ models – This approach is already the mainstay of many products and technologies in the market (cars and phones, ceiling tiles, lifts and lighting – all good examples) but we should be seeking out and challenging suppliers to offer us new opportunities to lease materials and goods, thereby reducing lifetime costs, and generating less carbon and waste in the process.

For many, the festive season is stark reminder of our communities’ general propensity for excessive consumption. Accordingly, we’ll be encouraging all our clients and delivery partners to start the New Year by committing to embracing more circular principles, more regularly, and to capture the benefits of reduced waste, increased reuse, and sustainable outcomes we achieve.