(material) Passport please!

In a world confronted with the consequences of climate change, the construction industry should be leading the change toward sustainability and reduce its carbon footprint. As Kengo Kuma, a renowned Japanese architect, advocated in recent interview with Bloomberg, the world should limit new constructions to reduce the climate impact of the built environment (Bloomberg, 2023). In other words, we should "build less". This is a bold step in the direction of reducing the environmental impact of the construction industry. In a time when urbanisation is on the rise and demand for new buildings is ever-increasing, Kuma's perspective challenges conventional thinking.

However, the challenge goes well beyond the sphere of the architectural world. Over the 20th century there has been an inextricable link between new developments and economic growth, but this relationship, as Kuma suggests, should now be revaluated because the climate impact from unfettered development is too great (Bloomberg, 2023).

According to Architecture 2030, a climate-centred non-profit organisation, the built environment generates 40% of annual global CO2 emissions. Of those total emissions, building operations are responsible for 27% annually, while building and infrastructure materials and construction (typically referred to as embodied carbon) are responsible for an additional 13% annually (Architecture 2030, n.d.). The situation is not getting better, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts a 75% increase in global building floor area between 2020 and 2050 (IEA, 2021).

This translates to adding 240 billion of square meters of new buildings by 2060, the equivalent of putting up another New York City every month for the next 40 years (Architecture 2030, n.d.)

The next decade will be a crucial test for the built environment to decarbonise both existing building stock and new structures and meet net zero targets by 2050. So far the sector is behind in key areas including updating and installing energy efficiency technologies like heat pumps, heating and space cooling, according to a recent report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2022).

As Kuma argues “sustainability is out of their focus” (Bloomberg, 2023), and despite national policies and international commitments such as the Paris Agreement's goal of reducing greenhouse gases, tighter economic conditions and soaring construction coast are making it more difficult for clients [and developers] to focus on the climate impact of buildings because they are more concerned about costs – the spreadsheet always win!

The conventional approach of demolish something old and make something new is still the preferred way, but this needs a complete rethinking. Preserving existing structures, extending their life?, enhancing their efficiency, and reusing materials when they are eventually dismantled offers one of the clearest paths toward decarbonising an industry that poses a substantial threat to global efforts to limit global warming as per the 2015 Paris Agreement (Bloomberg, 2022).

Architects have historically been involved in refurbishing legacy buildings and salvaging valuable materials like stone and marble. However, the urgency of the climate crisis has transformed these efforts from sporadic activities into a growing movement with the aims to incorporate the principles of reuse into every phase of the construction cycle and to scale it up. That means mapping the materials already woven into the fabric of our to create an urban database that facilitates sustainable building. “We have to think of buildings as material depots” says Thomas Rau, a Dutch architect who has been working to develop a public database of materials in existing buildings and their potential for reuse (The Guardian, 2020). It also means designing new structures that double as resource banks, enabling them to be deconstructed and reborn in a cyclical process, reflecting the principles of a circular economy (Bloomberg, 2022).

The concept of a 'materials passport' has gained prominence, cataloguing a building's components, assembly, and disassembly processes. This innovative approach documents the intrinsic value within a building's structure and secures it for future generations, promoting a sustainable legacy for our built environment. The concept has emerged as a transformative solution at the intersection of sustainability, circular economy, and digital innovation. Material passports is the next frontier in resource management and hold the promise of revolutionising the way we design, construct, use, and recycle products and buildings.

As Bloomberg (2022) notes “as climate startups enter the property development space armed with technology to digitally catalogue the infrastructure of entire buildings down to individual ceiling tiles and wash basins, they’re pushing a more holistic, systematic and scalable approach.” Drawing inspiration from concepts like Internet of Things (IoT) (Ghosh, et al., 2021), blockchain technology (European Scientist, 2022), and the principles of cradle-to-cradle design, material passports offer a comprehensive, digitalised record of a material's origin, composition, performance, and recyclability. Such passports have the potential to foster greater transparency in supply chains, empower consumers to make informed choices, and incentivise businesses to adopt more sustainable practices.

This concept is seen as an innovative strategies to transition from the traditional linear "take-make-dispose" model to a more circular, regenerative approach. This shift towards circularity and sustainability has prompted the exploration of material passports as a means to facilitate the management and tracking of materials throughout the lifecycle of a building and as a powerful tool to mitigate the environmental impact of our consumption patterns, reduce waste, and pave the way for a more sustainable future.

With that said, in order for a more circular approach to construction to gain and keep momentum, a strong economic incentive is imperative. Rau calculated that, on average, the residual value of a building’s materials equates to around 18% of the original construction cost (The Guardian, 2020) while another study for the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam calculated that the 2.6m tonnes of building material “released” each year through renovation and demolition in Amsterdam alone has a value of €688m (Metabolic & DR2 New Economy, 2018).

In Netherlands, where the idea is arguably most advanced, the Dutch government has also introduced tax incentives - allowing commercial real estate owners to get a tax advantage of up to 45% on their investment in circular construction (Construction Europe, 2022) - for developers who register material passports for their buildings, and it is considering making it a mandatory requirement for all new projects, in line with its ambition to achieve a circular economy by 2050. As the construction process is increasingly digitised, with the rise of Building Information Modelling (BIM), the material passport is merely another layer of data that can be easily incorporated and tracked throughout a building’s life.

The Netherlands is not alone in its circular ambitions and Europe is well on the way to reimagining buildings as “urban mines”. The Germany Pavilion to this year Venice Architecture Biennale is pretty much a statement to this. The Pavillion, Curated by ARCH+ and Summacumfemmer Büro Juliane Greb is a huge store of materials recovered from last year's art biennale, all set to find new uses around the city. Materials recovered from over 40 installations have been collected and catalogued, ready to be used for repairing and upgrading buildings and public spaces all over Venice.

With the title?Open for Maintenance, the exhibition is billed as "an action framework for a new building culture". The concept also aims to shed light on contemporary debates over the existing building stock and the social practice of maintaining urban fabric.

The UK is not yet at the same stage as other European countries in the material passports process but is catching up. The latest London Plan (2021) requires planning applications to include a Circular Economy Statement, demonstrating how the building components can be disassembled and reused. Material passport is being trialled on live building projects (mainly in the City of London) in a move to create a sustainability database describing characteristics of materials, products and components, giving them value during maintenance, recovery and future reuse. These database capture and store the key characteristics of building materials in a centralised database to provide reports on maintenance and potential future reuse during the life of the building and at end of life.

These database initiatives hold promise for a more sustainable and transparent construction industry, marking a positive shift toward responsible resource management in building practices

Just as humans have passports, buildings should have one too.

References

ArchDaily. (2023). "ARCH+ and Summacumfemmer Büro Juliane Greb Selected as Curators of the German Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale." ArchDaily. https://www.archdaily.com/985234/arch-plus-and-summacumfemmer-buro-juliane-greb-selected-as-curators-of-the-german-pavilion-at-the-2023-venice-biennale

Architecture 2030. (n.d.). Why the Built Environment? Retrieved from https://architecture2030.org/why-the-built-environment/#:~:text=The%20built%20environment%20generates%2040,for%20an%20additional%2013%25%20annually

Bloomberg (2022, November 23). "Sustainable Construction: How to Refurbish, Upcycle, and Green Old Buildings." Bloomberg News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-11-23/sustainable-construction-how-to-refurbish-upcycle-and-green-old-buildings

Bloomberg (2023, March 8). Japan Architect Kengo Kuma Urges Building Less to Reduce Climate Impact. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-08/japan-architect-kengo-kuma-urges-building-less-to-reduce-climate-impact?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=citylab&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

Construction Europe (2022). "How Are Materials Passports Changing Construction?" Construction Europe. https://www.construction-europe.com/news/how-are-materials-passports-changing-construction-/8020985.article

Dezeen. (2023). "German Pavilion unveils material bank for Venice Architecture Biennale." Dezeen. https://www.dezeen.com/2023/05/26/german-pavilion-material-bank-venice-architecture-biennale/

European Scientist (2022). "EU Digital Passport Scheme: Using Blockchain to Decentralise Europe's Circular Economy." European Scientist. https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/big-data/eu-digital-passport-scheme-using-blockchain-to-decentralise-europes-circular-economy/

Fast Company (2022). "Humans Have Passports. Buildings Should Too." Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90811654/humans-have-passports-buildings-should-too

Ghosh, A.,?Edwards, D.J.?and?Hosseini, M.R.?(2021), "Patterns and trends in Internet of Things (IoT) research: future applications in the construction industry",?Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 457-481.?https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-04-2020-0271

Greater London Authority (2021). The London Plan. Mayor of London

IEA (2022),?Technology and Innovation Pathways for Zero-carbon-ready Buildings by 2030, IEA, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.iea.org/reports/technology-and-innovation-pathways-for-zero-carbon-ready-buildings-by-2030

IEA (2021) Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. International Energy Agency

Metabolic & DR2 New Economy (2018). "Circulaire Business Cases in De Mra. Bouw-en sloopafval." Metabolic & DR2 New Economy. https://www.metabolic.nl/publications/circulaire-business-cases-mra-bouw-sloopafval/#page=4

Metabolic (2021). Urban Mining and Circular Construction. [URL: https://www.metabolic.nl/news/urban-mining-and-circular-construction/]

The Guardian (2020, January 13). "The Case for Never Demolishing Another Building." The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2020/jan/13/the-case-for-never-demolishing-another-building