Just switching gears: the key to high-quality circular façade construction!

From urban mining to circularly designed and installed façade systems, the potential of circular façade construction is considerable. However, realization is complex and implementation as strong as the weakest link. The circular economy promises to reuse materials and minimize waste, a promise that requires seamless communication between all chain partners, and that takes some switching! 

Within the National Growth Fund's "Future-proof Living Environment" program, I am working, on behalf of Bakker&Spees, with more than 100 parties from the design, construction and engineering sectors to achieve an emission-free, circular and climate-proof living environment by 2050. This requires from all chain partners the ability to step out of their own organizational bubble and take a look at the digitization of the entire chain. 

Unfortunately, I notice from my experience that organizations often operate from their own perspective and rarely apply industry standards, which poses a significant challenge to circularity. It is therefore crucial to make clear agreements on collaboration, such as implementing open standards. This promotes structured communication and information exchange between chain partners, which helps to reduce misunderstandings and errors.

It ensures that all important information about materials - think provenance, composition and lifespan - is accurately transferred between supply chain partners. In an industry where reuse is key, it is essential that every piece of information and specifications are clear and correct.

Another crucial aspect is clearly defining responsibilities for information transfer. By standardizing processes between chain partners, it is clear who has to provide what information and when. This is essential to ensure that each chain partner has access to the right information.

Finally, an industry standard supports transparency throughout the chain. Using this standard for information exchange makes it easier for all partners to access the same, up-to-date and verifiable information.

While the need for organizations to look beyond their own boundaries is clear, in practice this proves challenging. Indeed, successful implementation of circular processes also requires a shift in corporate cultures, with trust and transparency at its core. This means a fundamental change in approaches to partnership and competition, as companies may be reluctant to share sensitive information for fear of losing competitive advantage or intellectual property.

So adopting an industry standard is more than a technical agreement; it is also a cultural change. The reluctance of organizations can hinder innovation and delay the transition to a fully circular economy. However, it is the key to circular facade construction, and that requires a switch from everyone.