Hoe we in de bouw grondstoffen kunnen veiligstellenBiological and technical materials: they are a problem in construction. Did you know that the building industry is a large-scale consumer of materials and has been producing the most of waste for years? The amount of waste is really enormous and the price we pay extremely high, both financially and environmentally. *) When we learn to use materials instead of consuming them, we can save a lot of money and we drain the earth less quickly. To achieve that, it is necessary that the building process and the way parties collaborate, change drastically. I have developed a new method and am eager to share my knowledge and experience in bringing about that fundamental change of the building process.

From linear to circular

Apart from some innovative examples, the building process fares linear: we use resources and materials and what is left we throw away. In contrast, in a circular process resources and materials never end up as waste. Biological materials are recovered and reused or fermented. Technical materials are collected, reused and upgraded. In the current building industry two factors make it difficult to handle materials circularly: the poor information transfer and mixing of materials.

All parties have different interests

There are many different stakeholders involved in different ways. The suppliers of materials operate on the global commodities market. They supply materials to manufacturers of construction products. These manufacturers sell their products directly, or through the wholesaler, to contractors. The contractors apply these products in a building, commissioned by real estate investors and housing corporations, after consulting architects and other consultants approved so. Contractors have the building process monitored by supervisors, but have no responsibility anymore after completion of a project. The clients, meaning the real estate investors, primarily want to secure their investment. They have no interest in the processed materials. And then we have the users who live, work, provide care or get an education in buildings. As I said, all parties have different interests.

Information about biological and technical materials is lost

The needs and business models of all these parties are too different from each other to easily come to a meaningful exchange of information. And parties often work with each other only once on a project. In this system, the collaborating parties do not learn from each other nor from the process. That is very inconvenient to say the least if you want to apply what you have learned next time. That is how valuable information is lost.

Materials are being mixed

In a building a lot of building materials come together. They get mixed during the construction process. We lay out installations in the floor plan and pour concrete over them. So materials become fused together. And yet precisely the installations contain many valuable materials such as copper, different plastics, aluminum and steel. Without taking into account the different life cycles of the processed materials they are merged into a monolithic whole. Furthermore, during the making of the building nobody pays attention as to how all of these materials can be dismantled and distracted. Besides that the administration of all materials used is very limited.

The solution: make the building life cycle leading

In order to achieve a circular commodity economy we have to fundamentally change our way of thinking about buildings. We need to move away from monolithic thinking. A building consists of several parts that each have their own life cycle. The base building for example, can technically survive a hundred years, while the fit-out will be used much shorter. For users the fit-out must be easily adaptable. This is why renovation is much more common than building a new construction. So for each building, separate the long-term world of the owner and the short-term world of user. Detached from the base building, the fit-out can be part of a circular commodity economy. And later, much later, that also applies to the base building.

Take the next step and share your experiences

Do you want to take a next step? Come to the FREE* Masterclass. We will work with practical tools to instantly implement the actions of my ebook in your organizational, fiscal or financial projects and organization.

Join the conversation

Do you know how to build that new way and what you need? What tools have you used to make your benefits visible in this? Share it in the comments below.

To your health and wellbeing,

Remko Zuidema

*) Thanks to Erik Jensen and Waste magazine, Number 5, June 2013: Circulaire bouw vraagt om losse stenen (Dutch).