Reuse Reports and Articles
Examples of Circular Economy in Construction reports and articles specific to Reclamation and Reuse
Company / author | Title | Content | Link |
Fletcher Priest | Material Reuse Guide Material Reuse Catalogue Material Reuse Playbook (2025) | These guides aims to help those in the building industry to identify, develop and implement strategies for material reuse, including a material by material reference. | |
Elliott Wood | Unlocking the Value of Reuse (2025) | Why a circular economy needs a different kind of maths When we talk about reuse and retention in the built environment, the conversation often circles back to one thing: the numbers. Financial motives don’t always need to be the starting point, yet they often emerge as the most powerful deciding factor. | |
The Engineers Reuse Collective | The Reuse Hierarchy (2025) | The Reuse Hierarchy presented here provides a clear, evidence-based framework for decision-making, prioritising retention, repair, and refurbishment of existing structures over more invasive and disruptive interventions. | |
Concular/ Circular Buildings Coalition | A Deep Dive Into Risks of Using Secondary Construction Products and the Potential Role of Insurance for Reuse (2025) | Building Confidence, dives into the perceived risks of using secondary construction products. This report explores these risks across the value chain, examines current mitigation strategies, and proposes collaborative pathways for insurers to clarify policies, support vital standardization, and develop innovative products to mainstream reuse in construction. | |
UKGBC | Materials Passports (2023) | These practical and technical guides give an overview of Materials Passports and their crucial role in promoting circularity and reuse in the built environment. | |
Elliot Wood, Grosvenor,. Orms, ARUP and HETA | Elliott Wood Full Circle To Reuse (2021) | Elliot Wood, Grosvenor,. Orms, ARUP and HETA are working to identify opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing to put Reuse into mainstream practice. The first step is this guide, one in a series addressing the key barriers to reuse and developing a second-hand materials market in construction. | |
Arup | Evaluating re-use potential: Material profiles and vision for project workflow (2021) | This report has two sections Material profiles: these material profiles begin to explore the challenges and opportunities associated with re-using different materials. Arup’s vision for a project workflow to ensure the successful integration of materials for re-use. | |
IStructE | Circular economy and reuse: guidance for designers (2023) | New guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers focusing on the circular economy being part of the answer to tackling climate change in the built environment. This publication comprises four parts, and provides actionable guidance for incorporating circular principles on engineering projects; enabling structural engineers (and others in the design team) to take the initiative on this critical transition by leading clients and project teams through the process. | Not free to access – Click here |
(NLA) New London Architecture | CIRCULAR LONDON: BUILDING A RENEWABLE CITY (2023) | The NLA report looks at strategies, initiatives and projects that are pushing the boundaries to build a circular city. | Not free to access – Click here |
InFutUReWood | Design for deconstruction and reuse of timber (2020) | This report is a state of the art review of timber construction in selected European countries and discusses technical premises for a potential circular use of timber in building construction, focusing on Design for Deconstruction and Reuse (DfDR) in low-rise timber buildings, up to 3 storeys. | |
FCRBE – Facilitating the circulation of reclaimed building elements in Northwestern Europe | A guide for identifying the reuse potential of construction products (2020) And a collection of 36 material sheets | This document offers guidelines on conducting a reclamation audit. It is part of an excellent and extensive piece of research undertaken during 2018-2023 Data sheets covering a wide range of materials: how to reclaim and reuse them, what are their known characteristics, how available are they on the market, what are their environmental benefits | |
Zero Waste Scotland | Maximising Reuse in Construction (2023) | This ‘Maximising re-use of materials on-site’ guide will help you identify the materials that are commonly wasted on construction and demolition sites and describes how these may be recovered and re-used. The guide is for everyone involved in construction projects including design teams, principal contractors, sub-contractors and clients. It covers Demolition and excavation, Refurbishment and New build. | |
Ylva Sandin, Marlene Cramer, Karin Sandberg (World Conference on Timber Engineering, Oslo 2023) | How timber buildings can be designed for deconstruction and reuse in accordance with ISO 20887 (2023) | There is a need for a shift towards circular economy in the building and construction sector. Design for deconstruction and reuse (DfDR) and design for adaptability (DfA) have been suggested as means to facilitate reuse of buildings and diminish waste and material consumption. A standard, ISO 20887:2020, has appeared to support the implementation of DfDR/A. One objective of this study is to demonstrate timber building design examples that can be considered consistent with the standard and designs that should be avoided. Another objective is to examine if there are important aspects of DfDR/A for timber buildings that are insufficiently covered by ISO 20887:2020. The broader, long term aim of the work is to remove thresholds to DfDR/A by providing support for designers and industry in applying the standard. The principles and strategies in ISO 20887:2020 are illustrated with practical examples from case studies, organised in a searchable database. | |
ReLondon | Sourcing reclaimed construction materials (2021) | As part of the CIRCuIT project, ReLondon has worked with Grosvenor and a range of partners to explore how to incorporate more reclaimed materials and components within new developments. This guide documents their findings into the ways to source reclaimed materials and how to integrate this into the project development process. | |
G.Hobbs, K. Adams (BRE) | Assessing levels of Deconstruction and Recyclability (2012) | A summary of guidance around designing for deconstruction as a basis from which set out measurement criteria and further develop best practice. | |
Colin Rose (PhD thesis) | Systems for Reuse, Repurposing and Upcycling of Existing Building Components (2017) | An in-depth review of existing literature around the management and flow of building materials and stocks, with a particular focus on timber, and how we can shift materials up the ‘waste’ hierarchy from downcycling or landfill to reuse, repurposing and upcycling. |
Examples of circular construction in the news
Company / author | Title | Content | Link |
New Civil Engineer | Why is steel reuse uptake low despite proven benefits? (2025) | Steel reuse promises big wins for circularity and carbon reduction in construction, but for now, projects are being driven by a small number of pioneers. | |
Dezeen | Elly Ward designs own restaurant using salvaged terracotta tiles and reclaimed materials (2023) | Architect and restaurateur Elly Ward has opened the low-impact restaurant Edit in London, drawing inspiration from its vegan, minimal-waste menu to create an interior filled with reused and recycled materials. | |
The Architectural Review (guest author Joe Giddings | Demolish nothing (Aug 2023) | A ‘where we are to where we need to be’ opinion piece. In just over 25 years, embodied carbon emissions of new buildings will need to be reduced by approximately 99 per cent from what is common practice today, to around 10kg of carbon dioxide per square metre of floor area. This figure is 400kg less than that achieved by some of the most sustainable buildings today…fully new construction will have to be rare. Portland cement will be consigned to history, probably banned in many jurisdictions. It is likely concrete‑hungry basements will follow suit… |
Other useful examples of Circular Economy in Construction reports
Company / author | Title | Content | Link |
Scottish Government | Draft circular economy strategy: consultation (2025) | This draft circular economy strategy sets out the rationale and benefits of a more circular economy within the wider economic framework and describes Scotland’s overall vision to 2045 (below) and the outcomes that Scotland is working towards. | |
ASBP | Reuse of Glass Partitioning Systems (2025) | Report outlining the challenges, opportunities and practicalities of reuse glass partitioning systems.
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Green Alliance | Circular construction: building for a greener UK economy (March 2023)
| For this report the Green Alliance consulted a wide range of industry experts on what would have the best results (in terms of climate, carbon and circularity). The experts said that the industry already has the technology and the techniques, it just needs the right support to get on with it. The Alliance recommends action in three important areas: finance, design and data, which would help to reduce this sector’s use of raw materials by 35 per cent, at the same time as dramatically cutting its climate impact.
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World Green Building Council | Circular Economy Playbook (2023) | The Circular Built Environment Playbook report, launched by WorldGBC in 2023, presents market-leading circular principles and strategies in action, calling on the building and construction sector to accelerate the implementation of circular and regenerative principles.
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UKGBC | Circular Economy Metrics for Buildings Forum (2023) | A deep dive into best practice approaches for measuring circular economy principles in the built environment by the Circular Economy | |
European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) | Circular Buildings and Infrastructure State of Play Report ECESP Leadership Group on Buildings and Infrastructure (2021) | An overview of circularity in the built environment and infrastructure sector in Europe. | |
World Green Building Council | The Circular Built Environment Playbook (May 2023) | The Circular Built Environment Playbook report presents market-leading circular principles and strategies in action, calling on the building and construction sector to accelerate the implementation of circular and regenerative principles. Through this publication, the WorldGBC network aspires to increase awareness and accessibility of circular economy solutions for the built environment sector in order to guide all stakeholders towards sustainable, circular decision making. | |
UKGBC | Systems Enablers for a Circular Economy (2023) | System Enablers for a Circular Economy highlights systemic barriers and the policy and market-based solutions to enable the built environment industry to shift from a linear to a circular system. It identifies eight enablers that will encourage the shift from our current linear economic system; building a foundation upon which a circular economy across the built environment can become the default way of operating as we transition to net zero.
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UKGBC | Circular economy guidance for construction clients: How to practically apply circular economy principles at the project brief stage (2019)
| Together with its members, UKGBC has produced a circular economy guidance for construction clients, which provides comprehensive practical guidance to support construction clients who want to ask for circular principles in their project briefs for non-domestic built assets. | |
Platform CB’23 was founded in 2018 to reach nationally (Dutch) supported agreements on circular construction (CB) before 2023. | Circular Construction Unambiguous terms and definitions (2020) | Working effectively on circular construction calls for unambiguous use of terminology: we must all ‘speak the same language’. This lexicon provides clarity about the meanings of various terms. This second version of the lexicon was supplemented by terms based on the efforts of the action teams in 2019-2020. The lexicon does not contain an exhaustive list of terms and definitions for circular construction and will be supplemented and updated at regular intervals. | |
ASBP | DISRUPT Steel Reuse Toolkit (May 2023) | The purpose of this report is to: – Business considerations for steel reuse covering all supply chain actors from demolition contarctors to clients – 11 case studies with steel reuse – Steel reuse supply chain models – Scenario mapping showing the forecasted carbon savings and economical savings from reusing steel by 2030, 2040, and 2050 – Guidance and policy notes |
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Dunant, Drewnik, Sansom, Corbey, Cullen, and Allwood | Options to make steel reuse profitable: An analysis of cost and risk distribution across the UK construction value chain (May 2018) | The paper reconstructed the costs of steel reuse versus traditional use of virgin steel. |
Circular Economy & Net Zero
Company / author | Title | Content | Link |
UKGBC | Insights on how circular economy principles can impact carbon and value (Aug 2022) | The purpose of this report is to: – Increase understanding within the real estate sector of how circular economy principles can support whole life carbon reductions, and where there may be potential trade-offs; and – Provide greater clarity on how circular economy may be valued in relation to the whole life carbon impacts of buildings by translating these outcomes into financial and other value metrics. |
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Business in the Community | Going Circular for Net Zero: in your hands (Aug 2023) | This report outlines key enablers and levers crucial to achieving a circular economy for net zero. It begins by examining the drivers for change, collating insight from over 35 organisations across various sectors. |