In 2018, BAM (a major European Construction company) completed two projects in The Netherlands with high circular economy ambitions. These were complex projects which required a different approach – an economic model focused on total cost (including operational costs and increased residual value of materials than current norms), and a collaborative design ethos facilitating not just design for disassembly of building materials, but design for reassembly and reuse/ remanufacture – enabling materials to be made again.
This approach realised the need for a future where built assets should no longer be considered for short-term use, without consideration of total costs (i.e. capital, operational and end of life costs), or even better, the opportunity for building assets to be adapted, utilised again, or remanufactured either in whole or as a kit of parts (in a wider ecosystem).
Journey
The journey followed an intense innovation funnel Start-up process; Ideation; Discovery and Prototyping, whilst aligning with BAM’s Net Positive Strategy; to become the leader in the digitalisation of the construction industry; becoming resource positive; developing circular products and services and growing profitably.
Following several months of workshops, (including storyboarding, preparing use cases and classifications of components types etc), we successfully produced a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to:
- Match supply and demand of materials
- Create a digital product passport prototype
- Design a methodology to quantify higher residual values of built assets
- Devise an approach to promote circular design principles
- Create a digital platform to reuse materials
- Create opportunities for new industry business models
Lessons learned
The dilemma remains that whilst governments, cities and corporate organisations measure success based on short term metrics above everything else, the Built Environment risks staying the same…unable to see the social, environmental and economic advantages that circular business models will be able to provide.
We need to disrupt this deadlock by opening up an industry collaboration (of the willing) to test and develop methodologies and to offer solutions for designing for better utilisation and productivity of materials, products and components.
For an industrywide platform to succeed, we need to first challenge linear business models in favour of a vision where every stakeholder is incentivised to design and procure materials to be made for reuse.