You may have seen recently, that two of London’s leading property developers, GPE and British Land, are taking bold steps to accelerate the shift toward a circular economy. By introducing clear guidance and ambitious targets, they are demonstrating that ‘sustainable construction’ now also means circular construction.
There’s no denying that the journey is complex, but as I’ve said before, those leading in London are much like Formula 1 teams who pioneer technology and set new benchmarks that others will strive to meet.
GPE: Scaling Circularity
GPE has launched its Circularity Score, a new metric that quantifies the percentage of reused and recycled materials incorporated into their developments. Their targets signal a clear commitment:
2025: All new schemes to achieve a minimum 40% Circularity Score.
2030: This target rises to 50%.
2040: Aiming for greater than 60% circularity across all projects.
Real-world examples of this approach are already catching the headlines. Close to my heart due to the steel reuse, is 2 Aldermanbury Square, where 1,700 tonnes of steel were salvaged and repurposed for use at another London project, a powerful demonstration of material reuse on a significant scale.
I appreciate GPE’s focus on transparency - they have plans to publicly disclose building scores and their methodology by mid-2025, which will be an interesting read. And I think their CEO, Toby Courtauld, has the right approach when he says “Our Circularity Score will challenge us to innovate faster and catalyse a deeper market for reused materials.”
Final note on the score itself… there is no industry agreed method of calculating ‘circularity’, so GPE has come up with their own. You may have your own view, but it’s a start. A couple of the fine-print point are worth noting:
To measure circularity GPE are including quantity of materials that have been retained/reused (either from the existing site or wider market) and they will also include the proportion of a new material that is derived from recycled content.
Also note if they deconstruct a building and donate/sell material, that will be recorded but not find it’s way into the score - I think this is a missed opportunity because it would incentivise material harvesting. It takes me back to my thought piece on whether deconstruction should be considered part of a current development project, or the end of the previous development, see link below.
British Land: Circularity in Practice
British Land’s Full Circle, Full Potential initiative is an all-encompassing framework embedding circular economy principles across their projects. It also includes a suite of tools ranging from materials trackers to employer requirements. Plus there is a strong focus on Material Passports, including a whole piece on what they are and how they should be used on projects. The project manager in me also appreciates the responsibilities matrix for who they think should be doing what through the phases of a project - I wonder if the industry agrees on these?
Whilst British Land have not defined any circularity targets, they have certainly gone into detail to show that they understand the topic, and they explain that this all fits into their wider drive of carbon reduction - their pathway aims for upfront embodied carbon to be below 500kgCO2e/m2 on all office developments by 2030.
And there are already some notable success stories, including projects like 1 Broadgate where, once again, reused steel saved significant embodied carbon. Similarly, the refurbishment of 1 Triton Square achieved a carbon reduction of 2,400tCO2 by reusing facade panels.
It’s good to see that British Land’s approach also emphasises tenant collaboration to reduce waste from fit-outs, recognising that the circular economy must extend beyond ‘base build’ construction. I have always said that materials like steel are high carbon but low frequency, and we should not forget the materials and activities that are lower carbon, but higher frequency (e.g. fit-out).
These initiatives by GPE and British Land are not just about hitting targets, they are helping to rewrite the rulebook for construction and property management. They are leading the way to a functioning circular economy by prioritising reuse, recycling, and transparency. Of course, there’s still a long way to go. I’m sure we can all think of many challenges and issues with reusing materials rather than buying new. But there is so much material stock out there and I think that this shift is inevitable, so why not get on board?