Full Circle to Reuse: 2. Barriers to Change

The second of 3 bitesize sessions from Elliott Wood taking us through their actionable framework for the reuse of construction materials.

How do we promote the reuse of existing building stock and reclaimed construction materials to enable a circular economy and support a whole-life carbon approach in the built environment?

This series of three talks is based on ‘Full Circle to Reuse’, Elliott Wood’s 12-step guide for making reuse the norm for the construction industry, to address the global climate crisis.

The guide, which is mapped against the RIBA Plan of Work 2020, sets out an actionable framework to help architects, developers, construction, contractor and demolition firms take steps to implement reuse on their schemes.

The sessions will be led by Penny Gowler, Director and Head of Sustainability at Elliott Wood Partnership.

1. Business as Usual

In the first session, we break down the issues with how construction materials are currently specified, sourced, used and reclaimed; and discuss the ways in which our thinking needs to change when it comes to designing for material reuse.

2. Barriers to Change

The second session focuses on the key barriers to reuse; legal, economic, technological, and how we can address them in order to develop a second-hand materials market for the construction industry.

3. Materials

The final of our three sessions looks in more detail at the deconstruction process and ways of evaluating the reuse potential of steel, timber, masonry, and concrete elements in existing buildings.

Don’t miss the other sessions in this Full Circle to Reuse series:

1. Business as Usual (11 November) – Register here

2. Barriers to Change (18 November) – Register here

3. Materials (2 December) – Register here

The Full Circle to Reuse guide was produced as part of the ‘Accelerating Material Re-use’ research project, a collaboration between Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, Elliott Wood, HETA, ARUP and Orms.

Read the guide here: Full Circle to Reuse