Putting people first: 30 Broadwick Street achieves WELL Platinum certification
Circular economy and reuse strategies
For a building to be truly sustainable, it must be considered in the whole – the whole design and construction of the whole building, throughout its whole life – including its demolition. That’s where circular economy and reuse strategies come in.
Circular economy leaders
Total of 2 people
About circular economy
If our sustainability consultants set overarching targets and strategies for a new scheme, and our mechanical and electrical (MEP) engineering teams design low operational energy building services systems, and our embodied carbon consultants advise on the lowest-carbon construction approach, then our circular economy team reduce material waste and carbon in every system at every stage of the building’s lifecycle; from lightbulbs to fan coil units to cross-laminated timber (CLT) flooring, and from design to construction to strip-out, re-fit, and end-of-life. If you’re serious about targeting net zero carbon or complying with the London Plan, then a circular economy and reuse strategy should be near the top of your agenda.
Lean design and the reduction of waste have long been central Max Fordham guiding principles when it comes to MEP engineering; moving into circular economy consultancy was a natural step for us. Working closely with our clients, MEP engineers, the project team and – crucially – directly engaging with the strip-out or demolition contractors, the main contractors, and the supply chain, our circular economy consultants devise strategies that keep existing materials in use for as long as possible, and reuse or recycle them as responsibly as possible. Reusing construction and fit-out materials in a big or complex retrofit project can seem like an impossible task – but with Max Fordham consultants leading coordination and collaboration across the whole supply chain, the realm of what’s achievable is suddenly so much wider.
Circular economy is a relatively new discipline in construction, but reducing, retrofitting, reusing, and recycling saves money as well as saving carbon, and we’re proud to be leading the conversation.
Case studies
Total of 2 projects
Related journal entries
All services
-
All buildings should be comfortable and a pleasure to be in: warm, well-lit, well-ventilated, well-used, and well-loved. Our mechanical and electrical engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, daylight, and lighting design services can help ensure just that. We maximise passive measures such as natural ventilation and daylighting, seamlessly dovetailing our designs with the building’s own form and architecture to result in simple, low-energy, and low-cost building services.
-
In the face of an increasingly urgent climate emergency, it’s crucial that buildings consume as little energy as possible in their operation. Low energy, low carbon, and low operational costs are our watchwords when it comes to designing new buildings or retrofitting existing ones. We help our clients build sustainability goals into masterplans or early-stage feasibility studies, decarbonise existing estates, and optimise how a building performs against its targets for sustainability and user comfort.
-
Meeting net zero carbon targets and minimising a building’s impact on the environment means reducing embodied carbon – the carbon tied up in the materials like steel, concrete, and plastic that go into a building’s construction and services design – as much as operational carbon (the carbon a building produces in its heating, cooling, and lighting). We facilitate material reuse with circular economy strategies, steer low embodied carbon design from the earliest project stages with whole life carbon assessments, and offer advice on planning and compliance, all helping to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.