Principle 1
Resource optimisation for circular buildings
This principle’s objective is about acknowledging that both quality sourcing and quantity reduction of raw materials brought into the built environment is critical.
It is about understanding and considering how the design of buildings and infrastructure can influence and optimise the types of materials that will be locked away in our buildings for many decades. The priority should be to reuse what’s there first and for any resources used to favour healthy environmental and social outcomes. Principle one application note: Ideally this principle should be executed as early as RIBA stage one, Preparation and Briefing, and integrated across all stakeholders.
Optimising resource use
This requires design teams to challenge design briefs from the beginning and deliver strategies on how to build less and more efficiently from a resource perspective.
Early design decisions must consider opportunities to reduce the demand for building materials and ensure minimal intervention (‘do nothing’) or refurbishment over demolition (i.e., use of pre-redevelopment audits). This principle will establish a consistent way of measuring resource use (i.e., material intensities) to generate benchmarks and targets for common building types.
A building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) should validate the outcomes expected from such design decisions. Similarly, materials choices can be optimised for socio-environmental outcomes. For example, using digital tools with built-in metrics to easily support a healthy circular strategy for resource use.
Optimising asset design for both material selection and disassembly is a key part of the design for circular buildings
Selection of non-toxic and regenerative materials from local sources ensures low-impact next-use cycling
Sourcing materials responsibly and regeneratively
This is about quality - evaluating the overall extent to which healthy (non-toxic) and responsibly sourced materials are specified for the project, through a documented sustainable procurement plan.
As part of this, it is crucial to specify healthy materials first, to ensure next-use cycling, and to utilise reused, recycled, renewable materials, as well as participation in reuse schemes (i.e., reusable packaging schemes). It should incentivise design teams to undertake material selection working with manufacturers, as well as encouraging material knowledge development and sharing.
Targets for circular building material recycled and/or reused content should be established, as urban mining healthy materials from local sites is preferable to new materials if determined that they are safe (i.e., non-toxic to ensure safe materials re-use).