Elliott Wood featured in NLA Circular London report

The report explores circular strategies, initiatives and projects that are pushing boundaries in the built environment and propelling London toward achieving the ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2023 set by the Mayor of London. With the built environment responsible for around 40% of carbon emissions in the UK, it is imperative that we adopt a more circular approach, focusing on retention and repurposing of buildings where possible and designing for deconstruction and re-use of elements at the end of a building’s lifespan.

In the report, Gary Elliott, Chief Executive of Elliott Wood, discusses the need to flip our thinking on design and decision making about demolition of existing building stock. He prompts the built environment to question: ‘‘Do we need a 2.8m floor to ceiling height? Do we need a grid that is 9m by 9m? We need to ask these questions. We all want to live in buildings with character and refurbished buildings often provide this.”

Our projects featured in the report all explore different pathways to circularity from steel reuse to designing for disassembly. These include City Place House for GPE, The Hithe for Southwark Council and SEGRO Park for SEGRO.

Our mission to Engineer a Better Society drives the development of the sustainability-focused initiatives and resources we share across the industry. We are proud to see many of these initiatives celebrated in the report, including our structural carbon tool, ‘Full Circle to Reuse’ guide and the recently published ‘Circular Economy and Reuse: guidance for designers’.

Collaboration and innovative solutions in the built environment are critical for London’s transformation into a circular city. The NLA’s report that encourages and celebrates some of these initiatives is a great step towards circularity and motivates us to continue to push boundaries and share best practices across our industry.