Reuse of building products and materials – barriers and opportunities

BRE have been working with the reclamation sector in the UK for around 20 years to promote the reuse of end-of-life building products and materials in preference to recycling and recovery. Much of this has been dedicated to the promotion of pre-demolition and prerefurbishment audits to facilitate targets being set and markets for reusable...

The role of the client to enable circular economy in the building sector

Whilst there is an increasing recognition of the circular economy concept within the building sector, opportunities for its implementation at project level remain largely underexploited. Research has shown that challenges to its uptake include limited knowledge and awareness among stakeholders; a fragmented supply chain; an unclear business...

Challenging the current approach to end of life of buildings using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach

Life cycle thinking has been applied in the construction industry for more than 20 years for the environmental evaluation of construction products and processes. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the tool that enables the quantification of environmental impacts using parameters appropriate to the various potential environmental impact categories....