Circular economy of facades: Real-world challenges and opportunities

Reuse and high-value recycling have a pivotal role to play in reducing waste and minimising carbon emissions in the built environment. Design strategies for such recovery methods have yet to be fully established in the facade industry. Meanwhile, stringent regulations, aimed at reducing operational carbon emissions of buildings and improving other performance criteria such as occupant safety, have stimulated the use of more complex facade systems that incorporate multiple functions. Other areas of the facade life cycle, such as embodied carbon and high-value material recovery, are rarely considered at the early design stage. This study adopts a mixed-method approach of data collection, to investigate the key challenges and opportunities associated with promoting high-value recovery options for facade products, as perceived by stakeholders in the facade supply-chain. Data was initially collected through an online survey completed by 69 stakeholders from across the facade knowledge/supply-chain. This was followed by 29 semi-structured interviews with selected survey respondents. It emerged that the advancement of circular design strategies is dependent on: increased awareness and quantification of the environmental value of circular design; cross-supply-chain buy-in on developments in take-back infrastructure including greater support for demolition contractors; and advancements in technological separation methods specific to facade components. Enhanced communication between stakeholders - notably between clients, facade contractors and material processors - acceptability criteria and product availability; and more holistic legislation based on whole life cycle emissions, to avoid the over-emphasis on operational efficiency, appear as vital requisites to increasing material efficiency. Finally, we illustrate where stakeholder priorities related to reuse converge and diverge, and thus we identify strategies for levering these factors to minimise environmental impact and optimise economic value in the facade sector.