Well, Circular Steel was the first event I’ve ever ‘organised’ and it was a great a success! A big thank you to UKGBC who have supported the idea and helped to make it happen. We kept it simple - no mics, speakers, filming or anything flashy - but I think that made it feel more personal and encouraged interaction.
A quick bit of background… around 9 months ago I had the idea that an event on Steel Reuse was possible. Through many UKGBC conversations in working groups and other industry activities, I could see the potential benefit of bringing people together. It developed slowly at first, and then gained some traction as I heard positive feedback on the idea. Creating the draft agenda was the catalyst which showed there was more than enough to fill a day - in fact I had to hold firm for this not be cut to a half-day and insisted that we would get interest and sign-ups.
Suffice to say, when we launched the event link on 18th May the interest was immediate and I was very pleased (and relieved) to see 50 sign-ups in two days, and be ‘sold out’ within ten. Maybe this will be an annual thing?
What did we talk about
The agenda was a mix of panel/Q&A and interactive sessions and despite having 6 hours, the time went very quickly and each session was drawn to a close with time pressure and more that could have been said.
The session headings for the day were:
Deconstruction & Surveys - we heard from demo experts and a client
Testing & Rework - cabon calcs, plus did you know there is a reused steel EPD!?
Reuse Examples - case studies and when you should reuse or recycle
Procurement & Risk - we talked risk, contracts and insurance (with some insurance experts)
Net Zero Steel - we still need new steel, how is the industry decarbonising?
Design - can we design projects to be ready for steel (and material) reuse?
A Reusable Steel Market - Where are we at today, what is coming, and what are the opportunities?
The best bit was seeing how the whole industry was singing from the same hymn sheet and the agreement that reuse of steel was something that could, and should, happen.
If we do it next time I’ll introduce some stockholders, who I learned could be a key part of the future supply chain .
The quote of the day had to be Rafe Bertram asking “are we in Steve Gilchrist’s dream”, where he perfectly summarised that there are very few, if any, barriers to us actually doing this.
Another very simple quote from Dominic Munro was that “steel is steel”. His point being that you don’t necessarily need to differentiate between new and reused, assuming the testing and certification is right.
Resources & Content
Watch this space for myself or UKGBC sharing the content from the day. We have some brilliant display boards that we will share, plus will look to capture the golden nuggets from the discussion sessions via write-ups or blogs. Keep an eye on socials for this but also if you want to be informed on content from UKGBC, then email them at circular@ukgbc.org.
There are also key resources available that you should be aware of if reusing steel. Make sure you follow/join the Circular Steel socials where I’ll share and link to these.
Socials
Be sure to follow Circular Steel on Twitter and LinkedIn, and UKGBC on Twitter. You should also join the Circular Steel group on LinkedIn where myself and UKGBC will share more content from the day and as this story evolves.
Thank You’s
Whilst this was not a Grosvenor event and I worked on this in my own time, I do need to thank Debbie Simpson and Zannelle Davies who helped me with some arrangements in the run up to and during the event.
Of course a big thank you to UKGBC for spotting the potential of this, linking it into their events calendar and deploying resource to help make it happen.
Thank you to the companies that supported financially (Cleveland Steel & Tubes, ISG and Multiplex), and to Amphitype for photographing the event (a must if you want great value, high quality construction photos for things like construction storybooks or just cool images during a development)
Final thank you is to the 30 speakers who committed their time, stuck with me through the briefings, created content and offered their expertise, and of course the attendees who turned up with energy, interest and lots of questions!