Principle 3
Circular resource management
This principle’s objective is to facilitate material flow management from ideation to construction, demolition/demounting and operation with the intention of enabling highest value re-use of materials to avoid lower value cascading and eliminate all waste.
It should also develop a comprehensive strategy for resource management of urban mining and gains from surplus materials, and a consistent way of reporting this, to develop key performance indicators and benchmarks for all building and material types.
Principle 3 application note: this principle ideally should be incorporated into early RIBA stages and, at latest by stage 3, where practicable.
Empowering material recovery and re-use
During demolition: this should include undertaking an independent pre-demolition audit, implementing careful demolition strategies, segregating materials, and conducting analysis and monitoring of resource flows to maximise reuse and reclamation toward a goal of demounting and re-using instead of demolition.
During construction: this is about incorporating measures for managing construction resources that go well above and beyond standard practice. These measures would ensure and prioritise urban mining, the reuse of surplus products and materials. It would include targets and incentives for the recovery and reuse of materials and the sharing of both excess and recovered materials and products, on local platforms and networks for reuse.
During operation: this should include an Operational Resource Management Plan with suitable and easily accessible space for segregating and storing waste for collection, recycling, and reuse.
This includes consideration for the management of resources during any excavation works, training and incentives to staff and sub-contractors to deliver materials to cycling streams instead of waste streams, by sharing both excess and recovered materials and products on local platforms and networks.