Accelerating material re-use

The building and construction sector uses half of all new resources and generates more than a third of all waste in the EU*.

To adapt buildings to new uses and meet the needs of growing populations without over exploiting natural resources, circular economy principles must be adopted at scale.

In the UK, Grosvenor is seeking to build confidence in supply and receiving materials on site through enhancing knowledge and creating a network of progressive companies willing to trial new approaches.

In 2021, we canvassed 120 built environment professionals representing the full lifecycle of a building to find out more about the prevalence of, and barriers to, accelerating material re-use.

A series of guides created by our partners, HETA, ARUP, Orms and Elliott Wood address the major barriers to re-use and are published below.

Download our survey results here.

* Source: https://www.bamb2020.eu/

Designing for material re-use

Watch: Grosvenor's Steve Gilchrist joined Heta Architects and RotorDC to discuss the initial considerations when incorporating re-used materials into the design process.

Join the re-use network


Click here to sign up

If you have specific materials to contribute or would like to be added to an email list for those willing to contribute re-used materials, click here

If you need specific materials or want to be added to an email list for those willing to receive re-used materials, click here

Designing for material reuse

A guide from Heta Architects


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Evaluating re-use potential: Material profiles and vision for project workflow

A guide from Arup

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Sourcing reclaimed construction materials

A guide from ReLondon

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The practicalities of reclaimed materials

Grosvenor's Kathy Marsden joined Arup and ReLondon to discuss their guides to sourcing and using reclaimed materials

Watch video

Material passports

A guide from Orms

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Material passport toolkit

Find out more about the vision for a Material Passport from Orms

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How can Material Passports support material re-use of existing buildings?

Grosvenor's Steve Gilchrist joined Orms and Turner & Townsend to discuss the launch of a new guide to material passport

Watch video

Deconstructing buildings for circular use

A guide from Elliott Wood

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Accelerating material re-use - Watch the webinar

Grosvenor's Steve Gilchrist joined Gary Elliott, CEO and Founder of Elliott Wood to share the results of our survey and discuss the launch of their guide to decarbonisation

Watch video

Going for Zero

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Environmental Leadership

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Some of UK’s first salvaged steelwork reused in Holbein Gardens retrofit

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