Circularity – the interconnection of everything

Everything is connected. Or at least it should be.

We need to start thinking of the built environment as an ecosystem, rather than individual buildings, components or sectors existing in isolation.

If we map out the built environment in terms of interdependency we soon see that one sector relies on another, which in turn is then relied upon by something else. For example, power generation feeds into power transmission and energy storage, which in turn feed into energy users such as manufacturing, which then feed into logistics and consumers. This traditional view is very much like a food chain and has mineral extraction as its apex predator (where the process starts), with waste management at the very bottom of the pile. This is the traditional linear view, but it is not sustainable, and results in diminishing of resources and increased pollution.

However, we must be smarter than this. Our built environment needs to be treated like a closed loop, where everything plays its part, nothing is wasted and everything is utilised. Rather than a linear food chain, we need to loop back so everything at the end of its first life (materials, food etc.) is then re-used, re-purposed or recycled . Also, by-products of each process should be used positively. By demonstrating this in theory and action we will be more educated about how important (and simple to adopt) circularity is.

Cundall Futures is a think tank which looks into the short, medium and long-term future based on experience, data and geopolitical events. Our job is to see what is coming, what will the next big things, what the market is likely to require, then to help position Cundall to best meet the needs of our clients as we move forward together.

In our Cundall Futures group we have been looking at circularity in terms of the impact it will have on our business over the next three years, five years and beyond. Circularity in the context of the built environment has been talked about for a number of years (since we stopped living within our means), and we have been advising clients about it for a while too, but it is finally becoming a necessary wider reality. By looking how everything is connected, we can advise our clients on how to incorporate these interconnections into their projects to better plan and futureproof their buildings and masterplans and portfolios. We can then better advise on site due diligence, match-make between business owners and types, and provide consultancy at the very highest level. We can also use this approach to see which elements of the process are most critical and position ourselves to be involved in these sectors and facilitate these projects. As a multi-disciplinary, global business, we are ideally positioned to be able to advise on this, based on our wealth of combined experience and insights.

We began to map out what a circular built environment could (and should) look like, based on our experience and view of what could be. What started out as a relatively simple flowchart soon took on a life of its own and ended up as a very messy, chaotic and multi-stranded diagram, with over 2500 connections and seemed more like mapping the human genome. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. The more we look at how everything is connected, the more complex and beautiful the situation becomes. We see how by-products of power production can be used in the food industry and how hydrogen can be produced then used as a clean fuel, energy storage medium and manufacturing component. Food waste can be broken down into its constituent elements then used as fuel, fertiliser and animal feed; we soon see how nothing needs to be wasted but we can live more effectively and responsibly within our means, without compromising our modern life-style expectations. Circular economy is not just a buzz-phrase or a hippy-esque ideal, it is an intelligent and necessary response to our whole way of life that, once we pass the point of ignorance and realise that we could, and should be doing better, can apply from the simplest house extension to the most significant giga-projects that we can conceive.

As we head towards a zero carbon future, we have to think in a circular way. We have a responsibility as custodians of this planet to act in a creative and collaborative way to ensure that we reduce, re-use, recycle and re-purpose wherever possible and cut waste down to the bare minimum.

Credits to Andrew Parkin, Partner, Global Head of Acoustics and Chair of the Cundall Futures group, Kim Gault, Senior Sustainability Consultant, Gilles Alvarenga, Principal Sustainability Consultant and the wider Futures group.