Imagine the vast amount of building materials it would take to reconstruct the Empire State Building. Now imagine constructing 6,000 of them. Or picture 110 million average-sized dump trucks carrying full load. These images may seem unfathomable. Yet each one roughly illustrates the construction and demolition waste generated in a year. According to Waste Advantage, “Construction and demolition waste is a concerning global problem that is expected to reach an estimated 2.2 billion tons annually by 2025.”

This stunning statistic may make it challenging to consider the concept of zero waste in construction. However, the industry is progressing toward this circular ideal through noteworthy shifts in waste reduction strategies. These aim to unify efforts for the responsible production and consumption—as well as reliable reuse and recycling—of materials in ways that can drive significant positive impact on the environment. This evolution in approach is based in redefining material lifecycle standards beyond cradle-to-grave to the broader cradle-to-cradle mission. That is, instead of assessing building materials to the point of manufacture or landfill diversion, the goal is complete product reusability or “infinite recyclability.” 

While this will not occur overnight, things are already moving in a positive direction as more and more industry members, from R&D teams to project demolition crews, create and leverage opportunities that work to increase circularity in construction. To follow we’ll explore three key areas where the industry is starting to experience notable change.  

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

EPR is an environmental approach that holds manufacturers accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products. For years, many efforts to divert materials from landfills or recover them for reuse fell on contractors and project owners. But a shift in EPR has producers now taking a holistic approach to construction material circularity, starting with what they are made of and how they are manufactured and continuing to end-of-life recovery and recycling into other products. 

Using my career path as an example, for six years I served as recycling coordinator for Armstrong, leading our ceilings recycling program. Three years ago, my role grew to circularity coordinator. In line with what the industry is seeing now with EPR, my responsibilities expanded beyond ceiling panel takeback to encompass a larger circularity picture at the operational level. R&D, procurement, sales, and other teams are all part of the conversations and work together to define goals, implement change, and educate customers. We’re working across business units to deliver stronger solutions, embed circularity into our products, and advance our corporate sustainability commitments.

Efforts that began years ago to shift environmental responsibility upstream are now being influenced and becoming formalized by nationwide regulatory changes. By working to significantly reduce construction and demolition waste, EPR will support the industry in influencing other environmental needs, such as reducing its carbon footprint, use of virgin materials, and consumption of resources like water. EPR also works to ensure everyone involved in a construction or renovation project has greater, more convenient accessibility to expanded options for designing with sustainable products that support greater circularity. 

Project Sites—Design, Construct, Repeat

Our company is experiencing an encouraging shift in why projects include ceiling panel recycling. Previously facility owners and contractors utilized the program to trim dollars off the budget through landfill diversion. Today, the bigger draw is the way the program supports the critical need to recycle, the mission to build greener communities, and companywide sustainability commitments—all of which help build business in a consumer world favoring greener companies.

Ceiling panel recycling is just one of an expanding pool of construction and demolition waste reduction options. Optimizing the benefits of these opportunities requires:

• Buy in from everyone involved—architects and designers, building owners/operators, and contractors 
• Consideration during the entire project process—waste reduction isn’t just about the demolition stage

Consider the following fundamentals that can create a clear path to waste reduction.

One: Design for efficiency

From the outset, architects and designers can look to optimize project layouts to reduce material overages and waste. Strategies for doing this include designing to standard material dimensions, avoiding complex shapes, using prefabricated components or modular construction, and encouraging clients to commit to a design early to minimize in-process changes. The use of digitally assisted project planning has also become important as design visions grow bolder and more distinctive. These services allow more accurate specification and increased onsite efficiency, no matter how complex the design. Armstrong’s digitally assisted project planning service, for example, also offers material optimization analysis based on scrap reusability. This can provide 15% material savings or higher, helps architects tell their sustainability story, and delivers substantial cost savings for the contractor.

Two: Choose circular products

In addition to there being more products that support construction and demolition waste reduction and overall project sustainability, there are more tools and greater product transparency to guide selection of low-impact materials and demonstrate how they will contribute to environmental goals.

A conversation with manufacturer representatives—who are up to date on established and new solutions and their environmental benefits—is a good starting point. Some manufacturers also label green or circular products. Armstrong, for example, offers a diverse portfolio of easy-to-specify solutions that are healthy, sustainable, and verified. Products in this portfolio are identified with a “SUSTAIN” icon, indicating they are free of Red-list chemicals, have low-emissions certification, and use Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to provide ingredient and environmental impact transparency.

The availability of HPDs, which provide information about product components and associated health impacts, and EPDs, offering information about a product’s environmental impact throughout its lifecycle, is growing. And they have become highly important as the industry focuses on providing transparency that enables responsible material selection and use. These declarations can cover everything from toxic risk to the percentage of recycled material used in a product. They also address a product’s recyclability, and how it supports green building certifications such as LEED® and the WELL Building Standard. 

Designers can also tap into initiatives, such as Mindful Materials, that provide a platform for manufacturers to communicate transparency and optimization information about their products. Lastly, manufacturer websites may offer tools such as diversion cost-savings, embodied carbon, and environmental impact calculators. 

Thoughtfully and consistently using the experts and tools available can greatly simplify the decision-making process on the road to reduced waste and increased circularity.

Three: Close the loop

To move the industry closer to zero waste, everyone influencing a renovation or new construction project needs to ensure materials find their way back to the supply chain. This can mean diverting used materials from landfills and using manufacturer recycling programs. It can also be achieved by turning project waste into project resources by, for example, reusing scrap or repurposing demolition materials.

With everyone involved in project design and construction consistently leveraging the tools available and using products designed for circularity, the industry will progress toward elevated environmental standards.  

The Universal Construction Table

The construction industry is also seeing growth in the type of collaboration required to change the tide when it comes to its environmental footprint. For example, manufacturers and operators of takeback and recycling programs are investing in early education and personalized solution-building for architects and builders. I frequently experience contractors being aware of the benefits of incorporating sustainable products and practices into their bidding, but the sticking point is how to do it. As a manufacturer, our company encourages architects and contractors to reach out to us so we can both educate them on the process and arrive at custom solutions that make “doing the right thing” as easy, convenient, and effective as possible.

I frequently refer to a large renovation project that ultimately diverted approximately 245 tons of ceiling panels from landfills. However, the project was in mid-town Manhattan, which made it a challenge to bring in large trucks and load them with pallets of ceiling panels for recycling. Our company partnered with another vendor that oversaw onsite demolition and used smaller trucks to transport old ceiling materials to a less-congested location. Here they were palletized, shrink-wrapped, and loaded onto tractor-trailers for transport to our recycling facility. This project demonstrates success driven by facility management and contractor teams committing to a recycling program, manufacturers taking time to understand the unique needs and challenges of the project, and collaboration of resources.

Lastly, the construction industry now considers its environmental impact outside of the siloed approach. Not only are influencers from all aspects of the industry coming to the table to discuss challenges, needs, and solutions—but they are reaching across the table to work collaboratively. We are moving toward an industrywide approach in which everyone is invested in advancing our shared goal and helping solve global environmental problems. Whether this means several manufacturers of similar solutions working on a project to achieve the “greenest” and most efficient solution, or a company bringing teams together to develop an enterprise-level response to new EPR regulations—removing barriers for the greater good of our communities and planet is the type of forward thinking now underway.

A Confident Outlook

The construction industry has entered an exciting chapter which has opened new and unprecedented opportunities for stakeholders across the board. For facility owners, architects, designers, and contractors, the shift from cradle-to-gate to cradle-to-cradle thinking is presenting new ways to attract and expand business, create projects of distinction, and fulfill—if not exceed—environmental requirements. The history of the industry shows its resilience, ability to pivot when it is called to rise to new global challenges, enthusiasm for embracing new environmentally supportive solutions, and ingenuity for leveraging and creating opportunities that create greener, healthier spaces. With these strengths, we can be confident the industry will continue to advance toward a zero-waste future.