Building a circular, responsible future

The Green Building Council of Australia is calling on construction professionals to play their part in creating a circular future.

From the Green Building Council of Australia.

Those working in and around the built environment have a unique opportunity to contribute not only to the development of more sustainable buildings and communities, but also to Australia's circular economy. Implementing the circular economy is key to addressing the challenges facing the construction industry on its journey to waste reduction and decarbonization.

The circular economy takes our current linear “take, make, waste” economy and uses good design, processes and policies to eliminate waste and pollution, keep materials at their highest value for longer and regenerate nature. Rather than being destined for landfill, materials are kept in circulation through maintenance, reuse and remediation, to name a few – an approach that could have a significant impact in Australia, where construction waste makes up 40 percent of all waste.

Given the impact of this industry, positive changes will not only significantly reduce waste in Australia, but also address hard-to-reduce carbon emissions. There is also the potential to contribute $210 million to the Australian economy by 2047-48 and create an additional 17,000 full-time equivalent jobs. In a circular economy, the built environment can achieve its true potential and inspire other industries to do the same.

While there are many challenges on the path to a circular economy, there is no shortage of passionate people. This group includes Katherine Featherstone, senior manager of products and materials at the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), the national authority on sustainable buildings and communities and home to Australia's only national, voluntary, holistic rating system for sustainable buildings and communities – Greener Star. We sat down with Featherstone to find out why a circular economy is needed in Australia's built environment and what GBCA is doing to create change across the board.

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The importance of circularity

“Circularity is critical to achieving so many of our environmental and social sustainability goals in the built environment because its principles can connect and even enhance individual sustainability efforts,” Featherstone explained.

“Buildings and extensions account for around 50 percent of global resource consumption – that corresponds to 42.4 billion tonnes of raw materials per year.

“With only 7.2 percent of materials returned to the global economy after use, we have many opportunities to reduce and eliminate waste and pollution, preserve the materials used at their highest value (and for longer), and regenerate nature .” .

“There is also an opportunity to use existing buildings to preserve the visual heritage of our cities while improving their performance.”

Reducing embodied carbon

Reducing embodied CO2 emissions is a perfect example of a circular economy in action. By either rejecting new buildings or materials or using existing buildings and materials for longer, we can reduce the CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases required to produce them.

“We have a number of choices we can make within circularity to achieve this. If we need to build, cleverly designing our projects with lower carbon materials (low-carbon concrete as opposed to traditional concrete that uses high levels of Portland cement) and/or reducing the mass of the materials we use are other great options “They are circular in nature,” Featherstone said.

There are many Green Star projects in Australia that demonstrate the benefits of redeveloping buildings, including Lot Fourteen, SubStation no.164 and Quay Quarter Tower.

The Quay Quarter Tower, a 6-star Green Star building, is a world-leading example of circular economy, sustainable design and construction and highlights the benefits of upcycling buildings.

Adaptive reuse was key to breathing new life into the inefficient and aging building. The team behind the Quay Quarter Tower completed the historic conversion, retaining 65 percent of the existing structure, including columns, beams and slabs, as well as 98 percent of the original structural walls and core. Through a life cycle analysis, they were able to demonstrate a saving of over 12,000 tons of CO2e in initial CO2 emissions through the reuse of concrete alone.

Every decision made from the foundation through the entire life cycle of a building has a profound impact on its carbon emissions. But the most impactful decisions are the ones we make before we even lay the foundation.

Promote circularity

Featherstone and the team at GBCA are working to ensure circularity in the built environment in a number of ways. These include Green Star – the GBCA's voluntary rating system for assessing and recognizing sustainable building practices – and the Responsible Products Program.

“We are driving a massive change in the supply chain for products and materials, including those that are Green Star ready,” she said.

“Our vision is to create a long-term roadmap and tools to help the industry manage all the changes required to transition to a circular economy. Our goal is to create a built environment that is not only resilient to change, but also eliminates waste and CO2 through superior design and material selection.

“When it comes to the products and materials the industry uses, our Responsible Products Program emphasizes products that have a lower impact on the environment, are transparent, respect human rights, promote valuable social outcomes and in their production and processes are less CO2 intensive. The use of these responsible products is in turn rewarded in our various Green Star tools.”

Featherstone added: “Whether your project is an office expansion or the renovation of a historic building, we rely on product certification initiatives to verify manufacturers' sustainability claims in line with our own responsible product guidelines.” ensures Green Star projects use certified products that deliver what they promise.”

“We are also developing online systems to connect product manufacturers with users of the Green Star project and, in the future, with the wider industry. There are currently over 10,000 responsible products available in our database, certified by initiatives we have recognized under the Responsible Products Program.

“The GBCA team is always committed to helping expand industry knowledge of circular economy, embodied carbon and responsible products and materials through education by offering masterclasses, webinars and a series of lunch and learn sessions designed for manufacturers here were developed in Australia.”

A circular future

For Featherstone, a future with a highly circular economy will be less polluting and wasteful. “Our buildings are designed with their current and future conditions in mind. They will adapt flexibly to our needs, with better materials that have lower social and environmental impact from cradle to grave,” she said.

“We will have more data that will allow us to make better decisions throughout the building's life cycle, and buildings will retain their value at the end of their use because they can become banks of materials, allowing owners to reuse elements, “to repurpose or resell.” which are traditionally treated as waste in the linear economy.”

At TRANSFORM 2025 – the place where industry leaders come together – you can understand the changing world and learn more about circular economy and sustainability in the built environment. We know circularity is central to a sustainable future, but how do we put principles into practice? Join our speakers as they explore innovative solutions that accelerate change. Inside Construction is a proud partner of TRANSFORM.