Circle Forward: Turning ambition into action for circular construction in the South West

In a city with such a strong culture of reuse, the progression towards a circular built environment is not being held back by a lack of commitment. The challenge is making the right people, available materials and practical knowledge more visible and better connected.

For the third instalment of Cundall’s Circle Forward campaign, we brought together a passionate group of professionals at our Bristol office to explore the direction of the circular economy across the city and the wider South West. The discussion pointed to a clear opportunity: to build on the region’s strong culture of reuse by creating the connections and infrastructure needed to translate ambition into delivery. 

Culture, community and human nature

A recurring theme throughout the conversation was the need to create greater visibility and stronger connections across the industry through informal networks, local relationships and media attention. It was also outlined that widespread adoption of reuse and retention would be predicated on changing the cultural norms of needing something “new”, by demonstrating that reuse doesn’t equate to less quality.  By increasing awareness of circular economy practices, these principles can become more familiar across the sector, allowing a wider range of stakeholders to contribute their expertise in practice. 

Another interesting topic of discussion revolved around how human nature should be considered in decision making. As practitioners of circular economy, we should be pushing clients and consumers away from the obsession with new materials and instead we should be demonstrating how reused and repaired products can deliver spaces that both aesthetically and functionally rival their “new” counterparts.  

Tangible, tactile experiences were pitched as a response, including site visits, training, material hubs and workshops, all of which could provide more physical experiences with circularity. While digital tools have proved useful elsewhere, the ability for designers to see, touch and imagine materials in a new setting would be invaluable to encouraging the implementation of circularity. 

The region’s strongest advantage may be the range of people already involved in repair organisations and community groups. Physical spaces could bring these groups together, combining technical ability, practical experience and procurement routes to create the capacity needed to support commercial projects. 

The role of estates  

Some of the strongest successes came from clients with multiple buildings. Such clients benefit from ample storage space and an ability to move items directly between assets.

Often these larger organisations also benefit from internal ESG teams that push for circularity and can often consider longer timeframes in their investments than smaller clients. Building portfolios in the region including universities, healthcare bodies and other long-term estate owners provide a scale and connectivity that scattered individual projects can’t currently achieve.

It was discussed that perhaps we should push clients to re-frame how they view buildings, not considering them individually but as physical “material banks” with potential to benefit both their own developments and the industry at a wider scale. By encouraging this narrative and facilitating connection within the industry, major estates could make their material availability visible to local businesses, or community organisation, turning their stored material into a shared regional resource. 

Regional challenges and opportunities

A running theme across previous roundtables has been the logistical challenge of maximising circularity. Engaging contractors and specialists at the earliest opportunity was again identified as a key enabler, alongside repeated examples of valuable materials becoming unusable because no recipient had been identified in time. Discussion around a proposed circularity hub highlighted how this type of initiative could provide clearer pathways and temporary storage, reducing the loss of valuable materials. Where routes have been established and engagement has been effective, successes have included glazing sent for remanufacture, brickwork reused through material exchange and refurbished lighting installed in offices.

The group also highlighted the additional challenge surrounding liability and compliance, with previous projects hindered by lack of warranties and unclear distinctions between what is waste and what is resource from a contractor perspective. In this case circular economy is more than a design point but rather a wider contractual, regulatory and risk-management issue.  

The group also considered the role of local policy, noting the momentum created by the Greater London Authority while remaining cautious about introducing metrics for their own sake. The South West should not simply copy another region’s model. Its route needs to reflect the maturity of the local market, with community, practical infrastructure and delivery confidence strengthened alongside any future policy requirements.

What needs to change by 2030

The group considered the key changes required by 2030 that would see circularity at the core of local construction. A connected system of live assets, networks for physical and digital exchange, rotating storage and learning spaces are all key steps in achieving this goal. Regional infrastructure must develop to reduce unnecessary movement while enabling materials to flow between projects across Bristol and the South West.

One of the deepest shifts is cultural. The industry will need to transition from treating “newness” as the default measure of quality and learn to value buildings that adapt, age well and retain their stories. Reuse should not be seen as accepting less, but as making more intelligent use of what the region already has.

The Bristol roundtable showed that many of the ingredients are already present: active community organisations, committed practitioners and major estates with the scale to support change. The opportunity now is to connect these strengths through a visible and practical system that enables materials, knowledge and opportunities to move more easily across the region.

As Circle Forward continued next to Manchester, these insights provided a practical basis for deeper conversations about what is shared across regions, what is distinct to the South West and what needs to change if circular construction is to move from isolated good practice towards a more connected and consistent approach.