how to reduce a buildings carbon emission part 2

How to reduce a building's carbon emissions - pt 2

One of the greatest opportunities with the circular economy is the opportunity to add value to materials that are currently being considered as waste. Catriona Brady, Director of Strategy and Development at the World Green Building Council explains how with circularity we can retain value in materials and reduce waste.

“There are some estimates that say a city, the size of Paris is being built every single week and the raw materials being used for that, the energy being used for that is absolutely monumental,” says Catriona.

However the way that we currently use our materials is very linear. “We take, we make we use and we dispose,” says Catriona. This has long term impacts on the planet, so circularity has emerged as a way to counter this waste.

Circularity in the built environment is about creating a closed-loop system where materials can be reused so that they maintain their value and extend their lifespan as long as possible.

“If you have a building that we can consider as a material bank, as almost a storage facility, then that means that any materials or fabrics that you have in your building or in your asset right now will retain a value for after you're finished using it,” says Catriona.

The World Green Building Council is calling for new design methods and new construction practices about how we share materials and create material flows to be innovative and focus on circularity.

“The principles of circularity - of designing a product or a building or a bridge so that it can be dismantled, so that it's not being contaminated with chemicals, so that it can be reused or adapted in the future - those principles are just as relevant if you're talking about a table or if you're talking about a skyscraper. This to me is the really exciting principle of the circular economy,” explained Catriona.

“One of the greatest opportunities with the circular economy is the opportunity for us to add value to materials that are currently being considered as waste.”

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How to reduce a building's carbon emissions - pt 2

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