Infrastructure development in a circular economy

From bridges to buildings, the circular economy offers a new business model and design criteria which will allow new investment models. If we focus on the technical cycle to deliver the majority of construction products we can base the business models on the businesses already leveraging the technical cycle. The frst consideration is to look to sell the performance over the physical product. This one degree mindset change dramatically alters how we can view an infrastructure project. We can see this by looking at the partnership between hilips and TurnToo where hilips agreed to supply the performance over the physical products, in this case !light! or lu" per hour. This made hilips responsible for the materiality, reliability, effciency and a new powerful business model too. This model creates a closer relationship over time with the !user! while supplying key product data feedback to the supplier. If we take these insights and apply them to the large infrastructure projects the model becomes very compelling. TurnToo has already developed much of the model, two key developments to come from their thinking are# $e%uiring a material passport to track materiality within the project &reating a material bank from the project The following outcomes of this technical performance model are# 'ongterm investment has good returns with attractive hedging options (igh %uality material is chosen over low %uality) *The more pure a +ow, the higher the price, -ffective design is chosen over linear economy effcient design .esso has taken the technical performance model and produced a technical material fabric which helps to purify air. The airline industry has received this idea with particular interest. /y doing this, they have achieved a competitive advantage by adding an e"tra layer of performance to a product which traditionally had little to distinguish it from other similar products, e"cept price0 1o what would a technical performance building encompass2 There are a good number of projects where the construction company builds to a lease model. (owever, without realising the value which can be captured through design and the materials used for construction, the model can only deliver so much proft over time. This is due to re%uirements of upfront resource costs, maintenance, reft and demolition. 3nder the performance model, a construction company can hold onto the value of the materials and by selling the performance down to lu" per hour create new long term revenue streams. This gives an economic reason to view the longterm which relies on higher %uality materials and better design. If a developer built an entire neighbourhood with mi"ed use facilities including everything down to the furnishings all on a performance model then they would be responsible for energy effciency, design and materiel %uality. 4s with the hilips! model the developer is responsible for materiality, reliability and effciency. /ut, also perhaps the wider social aspects which are a key consideration for successful urban design. 4ll of this is rewarded with long term economic benefts. In the future some of the major infrastructure projects such as city blocks or entire cities will be more easily achieved by leveraging a material bank for investment. 4 building or neighbourhood can generate more energy than it uses, process waste to energy and bio)nutrients, grow fresh food, purify water and be designed to be made from high %uality materials, maintained more easily and disassembled and cycled with retained value. These buildings and neighbourhoods never become slums and are restorative by design and nature.

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