Marion Jammet
Deputy CEO, Irish Green Building Council
What comes to mind when you hear about the ‘circular economy?’ Maybe you think about carefully recycling waste or buying second-hand clothes in charity shops?
These are both important, for sure. But the first step in a circular economy should always be avoiding the creation of waste and making the most of existing resources. In the built environment, this means making better use of our existing buildings.
Circular economy in built environments
One great example comes from Ava Housing, a not-for-profit organisation in Dublin that helps older homeowners reconfigure their large family-sized dwellings, adding a bedroom and bathroom downstairs and creating a rental unit upstairs. This generates income for the homeowner while improving energy efficiency and comfort.
Another example comes from Paris, where the city has opened 42 school playgrounds to the public on weekends, saving carbon and materials from building new facilities.
the first step in a circular economy should always be avoiding the creation of waste and making the most of existing resources
Better utilisation of existing infrastructure and new builds
As well as making better use of existing buildings, we can make better use of existing infrastructure. This means prioritising brownfield sites in towns and cities, where roads, lighting and water pipes are already in place, when we do build new. This not only prevents waste and saves carbon but can help deliver housing more quickly (because the infrastructure is already in place) and create more vibrant communities better served by public transport.
When we do build new, we can also design buildings to be adaptable — like Vrije University Amsterdam, which created a new lecture hall to be used as a cinema on evenings and weekends. Or by thinking from the outset about how homes can be adapted in future as families change in size and age profile. We can also design buildings so it’s easier to take them apart and reuse their components in future. This starts with something as simple as using reversible connections, like screws, instead of non-reversible ones, like glues.
To learn more about circularity in the built environment, you can take our Circularity 101 course at learn.igbc.ie, and check out the “Building a Circular Ireland” roadmap we launched last year at igbc.ie.
