The other day I visited a LEED certified building in the Lower Mainlandand have to admit I was impressed with the project and if not for the small round plaque between the elevators block, I would not have realized it was a LEED certified building. It is an excellent example of sustainable practice by every one involved in the project. There is no doubt this and other sustainable buildings saves money and resources and have made an positive impact on the health of the occupants and in turn promote renewable clean energy.

However, we need to move beyond this linear use of materials and linear sustainable practice. We need to transform the way we think about how buildings and communities are designed, constructed, maintained and operated across the globe. Why do I say this? is this not what LEED; Passive buildings standard all about?

Our premise ofa sustainable environment are based on the three Rs- reduce, reuse and recycle. Does this building I toured last week meet that criteria? Yes, it does where res-use is concerned as it it has been sustainability built into it - reducing waste in many forms and sustainable process was used in building it.

However, it barely meets the other two "Rs" - reuse and recycle. Very little of the sustainable materiel will be reused nor recyclable. The good sustainable material that went into constructioning the building would in effect will go to waste when the building has run through its life cycle some decades from now as it is not designed to be recycled or reuse.

Furthermore, in the immediate future the sustainable material in the interior environments will never be recycled to make the interior space usable for the series of next occupantof the building. 

Our method of design; engineering and construction does not leave an incentive for owners to deconstruct but rather it is designed; engineered and constructed to be demolished. Read on and you will realize where I am going with this.

In their book "Sustainable Materials with Both Eyes Open," University of Cambridge researchers Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen indicates that when brick was the dominant material for building the builders had an incentive todeconstruct rather than demolish old building as most bricks were undamaged during deconstruct, so ready for reuse after simple cleaning. using this simple thought the researchers rightly ask the question: How does this translate for steel and aluminum?

After reading this book Bill Gates notes in a recent blog post, the Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle - are not equal. He writes that

"Reusing is much better than recycling, "because recycling takes yet more energy."

You should read it, its a free download

In my previous blog: Disrupting the AEC Industry & Disrupting the Business of Design - Architecture - I indicated that these industry will definitely get disrupted, it was matter of time. Now in a small step but with a leap of faith it is happening with the publishing of book and the disruption has started. Out of these thoughts will come the disruption.

But for now, there are hurdle. This will require making changes that require new workflows, new training, and evangelism and commitment to from builders and owners the long-term benefits of transforming how how buildings and communities are designed, constructed, maintained and operated across the globe.

Buildings will have to be designed to a standardthat allows disassembly. Buildings of the future willbe designed with disassembly in mind. The easiest target to start would be steel buildings. Allwood and Cullen say there's are:

"no fundamental technical barriers" to creating new buildings using 40-year-old steel. If safety certification processes were developed, a market could spring up"

Gates in his blog says that this is where technology could help. 

"We can put digital stamps on products so we can track their history, and digital markets can match supply with demand," he writes. "There are other intriguing ideas too, like finding ways to make buildings that are dismantled instead of demolished, so we could reuse more of the stuff they’re made of." 

I am existed to see this small step of mankind that is going to change how we build, use and maintain the built environment.

Julian Allwood’s research group  (The Use Less Group) of around 25 people, with connections to several other universities in the UK and internationally, are working on Whole Systems Analysis; Material Demand Reduction and Novel Material Processes - research towards how to avoid waste and reuse material.  This group is supported by government funding, and a growing number of industrially funded studentships, and has a strong record of external engagement, with industry and government partners and with the general public. They even have a spin out companies launched from the group during 2015: Reduse Ltd is commercializing their work on laser un-printing to allow paper re-use.

These researchers are not alone in their quest to make us re-think and re-design the way we make stuff. A changed perspectiveto way our world economy works through creativity and innovation move away from the destructive to a restorative economy. There is a movement out there know as the Circular Economy promoting an economy that is:

"restorative and regenerative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between technical and biological cycles."

The Ellen Macarthur Foundation promoting the concept of the circular economy  has identifiedfour essential building blocks of a circular economy. which enables companies / organizations to transition to a culture of restorative and regenerative by design. There is already evidence of a transitiontaking place, and the concept and principles of the circular economy have already been put into practice by very different companies around the world. Companies such as Philips; Ricoh; Caterpillar; Maersk Line; are all working tom achieving to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times.

The World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation have formed a unique partnership through Project MainStream: a cross-industry, CEO-led global initiative to accelerate business-driven innovation and help scale the circular economy.

Why are all these folks bent on achieving a restorative and regenerative economy? As we are in the age of the Anthropocene- when human activities started to have a significant global impact on Earth's ecosystems.

We as humans are no more insignificant observers of the natural world but as central to its workings, elemental in their force.  

My question to you: will the designers; engineers and builders of the built environment can be silent observers any more? we need to central and elemental is the workings of making the world sustainable? 

The future of building will be based on how we answer their question:

How will you reuse components into structures that can be extracted without damage and at low cost?

I would like to hear from you.