2023 Reuse Summit survey results
At ASBP’s 2023 Reuse Summit, part of the Reuse Now Campaign, a series of interactive survey questions were asked of the 100 strong audience. The survey questions were designed to gauge current reuse uptake, enablers, and barriers, to further influence the activities of the Reuse Now Campaign.
Respondents
Is your company using circular strategies (eg: reuse) as part of your embodied carbon reduction plan?
Have you ever carried out a pre-demolition or pre-fitout audit?
Do you think that training and accreditation on pre-demoliton audit would be beneficial?
Do you think that artificial intelligence could help accelerate the identification of products for future reuse?
Have you ever reused materials/products in a project?
If yes, to previous question - which one did you reuse?
1. Steel
2. Brick
3. Flooring/floor systems
4. Furniture
The product that was mentioned the most frequently, with over a third of respondents citing it, was steel. Given there are an increasing number of projects incorporating the reuse of steel, and with ASBP having done several projects on the reuse of steel, it was anticipated there would be a high level of interest in steel among the Reuse Summit audience. Our Reuse Now Campaign is also sponsored by Cleveland Steel and Tubes.
The products most frequently mentioned after steel were brick, flooring/floor systems, and furniture. There was also mention of timber, glass partitions, wall linings and plasterboard, aluminium, lighting, and doors.
What needs to happen to enable more materials & products reuse in your new projects?
The three enablers above were the clearly most needed uptake of reuse within the industry amongst the Reuse Summit attendees. The other three options were internal culture, ESG strategy and reporting requirements, and other, with 23%, 14% and 9% of respondents choosing these options (respectively).
Which products would you be most willing to reuse in a new project?
A large majority of respondents indicated that they would be willing to use reused structural steel in a new project, with over half of respondents also willing to use reused non structural steel and reused brick in a new project. Although FF&E/furniture, aluminium products, floor coverings, and doors, and luminaires, weren’t as popular for reuse within our respondents, over a third would be willing to reuse in a new projects.
The other options, which came up between 12% and 26%, were: Suspended ceiling systems; windows; sanitary ware, MEP, and partitions, with only 3% suggesting other.
Have you found it difficult to use a reused product due to warranty/insurance issues?
Next steps
The survey findings are incredibly useful for ASBP and its Reuse Now Campaign in setting a focus for future activities, events and outputs.
A series of ‘Deep Dives’ will be directly influenced by these findings. We aim to develop a work stream for each identified agreed product (6 months) and bring the supply chain together.
Deep Dive Outputs will include:
- Assessment of barriers and how they can be overcome (linked to enablers)
- Bring together key stakeholders (e.g. insurance, certification bodies, manufacturers etc)
- Research and capture learnings successful precedents -case studies, lessons learned
- Discuss/create short and long terms solutions/interventions for increase in reuse
- Action plans, webinars and summary report
For more information on the Reuse Now Campaign, please visit the Reuse Now Campaign web page here: https://asbp.org.uk/workstream/reuse-now