Circular Disruption – first report

It’s a case of what have we created here?

When you’re deep in the weeds of designing an event, it’s sometimes impossible to rise above those pesky weeds, low carbon or not, and see the talent and innovation that’s about to wow your audience. But wow us all it did: the speakers, the audience with their engagement and tough questions, and the commentators in person and later on social media. In abundance.

Phew!

In reading through the transcripts, it’s clear now: Circular Disruption shone a light on a cross section of this industry at a particular and deeply important point in history, and it revealed how far it’s come since our last deep dive into the sector with Building Circularity in 2020.

Back then, it was the midst of Covid, and we went full-TV studio glam, live streamed from a hastily converted warehouse complete with a giant screen, with what felt like 25 techies and countless panels of coloured lights and buttons. It could have been Channel 9 back in its heyday.

The contrast between these two circularity events was stark.

First, there’s been enormous progress.

Instead of earlier days when a circular economy might have seemed like a segment of the sustainability industry or a moonshot, it was clear on Wednesday that circularity was the fundamental structure on which we need to build sustainability itself. A circularity that’s rooted in the patterns of nature that, like nature, regenerates and wastes nothing. And, more importantly for we humans, that doesn’t kill or maim its dependents.

Theory versus reality

Another contrast was that on Wednesday, was how far we’d moved from theory. The sense was of a thumping reality – dreams morphed into real life iterations, barriers still to be overcome but overall a sense of tangible headway. There was now a national organisation dedicated to progress through Circular Australia, with Lisa McLean who spoke in 2020, back on Wednesday as CA’s chief executive.

Ninotschka Titchkosky was also back, then as co-CEO of BVN, now as CEO of her own moonshot Systems Reef that promises to disrupt the way air distribution systems work in buildings, old and new.

Back again too, was Maria Atkinson, our favourite and frequent moderator who again weaved her (yes) wonderful theatrical magic to prod for incisive answers and comments that only an insider can do.

Not to mention the spark, anticipation and humour she brought.

“Just to start with, we’ve got to design out waste and pollution from materials products,” she said in kicking off the show.

“We’ve got to preserve and enhance the value of resources, materials and products, but also circulating them at their highest potential, not degrading them. And we need to conserve natural resources. So there we have it. There’s a little rule book on circular economy, but it really needs scale.”

McLean shared the broader aspirations and potential of precincts to create a kind of whole of circular life outcome that these iterations of traditional villages have the potential to offer us.

Material disruptors

Front and centre of the day were the inventors of real life disruptors challenging rusted on and tired habits.

We heard on progress in precincts energy systems from Philip Graham from CleanPeak Energy and from Paolo Bevilaqua of Frasers Property, which was an outstanding pioneer in precinct scale sustainability not to mention the Burwood Brickworks in Melbourne, which it bravely converted to a shopping centre under a Living Building Challenge framework.

There were bio based, low carbon materials and composite materials that use waste, some made from just paper and water, such as through Zeoform, which won the pitchfest hands down even though we would have awarded equal firsts to the contestants who are changing our future and – given widescale take up – would giving us a chance to not just survive and thrive on this warming planet but hopefully reverse some of the damage.

Since 2020, we now have a co-operative research centre Building 4.0 that’s now thriving under the infectious blend of enthusiasm and science brought by CEO Mathew Aitchison.

Manufacturing is go

There’s grist for government aspirations for a Future Made in Australia with Novon Lighting’s new live factory in Western Sydney that aims for ambitious environmental outcomes, explained the company’s Phil Cowling. Sophisticated Swiss robotics run the plant, but there’s also clever innovation in plans to upgrade 4000 lights to LEDs by removing just the tubes in and leaving the legacy casings in place, saving big quantities of embodied carbon (See the post Matt Williams of LCI made on late Wednesday republished below).

Measurement – at last

There was a fresh out of the box rating tool for embodied carbon through NABERS, still finding its feet and with a thousand tough challenges to get it established. Then again, what’s new? NABERS for energy set a global precedent back in the day and it wants to do the same for carbon. Katie Eyles of NABERS explained the thinking while Jonas Bengtsson of Edge Impact explained the industry’s challenges.

Finance

With finance, the fuel that ignites innovation, it was good to hear new thinking around the circular economy and finance had made it to the strategic level through Kar Mei Tang of Principles for Responsible Investment. There was also a new report from Mercer and Circular Australia, shared by Mercer’s Jillian Reid who said we already have the frameworks than can fund our future.

Architects – inspiring and potentially game changers

Caroline Pidcock, doyen of sustainable architecture and a significant influencer in this field, introduced two architectural sessions with a call for design to lead the way in sustainability. It was critical shesaid.So too the importance of taking on risk.

Melbourne based Fieldwork’s Bettina Robinson and Tim Brooks exemplified both qualities. Their presentation captivated the audience revealing what happens when the beguiling charm of big aspirations and brilliant ideas meet the harsh reality of timelines and constrained budgets.

In this case, it was for the inclusion of six new building materials in a project they’re handling.

Big – no, huge – kudos, to their client Master Builders Victoria for enabling the attempt at these critically important firsts. The subtext well understood by anyone in sustainability is that if they didn’t work this time, they soon will. Or be amended.

(Did we mention agility as a key ingredient? And how grateful we are to the pioneers crafting the world we want.)

In a similar uncompromising vein Tim Schork of Queensland University of Technology brought tight academic scrutiny to evolving new materials through his several questions during the day as well as in his presentation.

His “building blue” theme focused on bio-based materials from oceans and waterways, which he said are our biggest global assets. Think algae, for instance: this emerging new material grows 10 times faster than anything else in the world.

Landing in place

As we’re in the business of the built environment, the event also landed on how great ideas were revealing their potential in a placed based sense.

At Port Kembla Atelier Ten’s Stewart Monti delved into the ambitions of BlueScope Steel’s dreams for its 200 hectares of land at Port Kembla on the NSW south coast and included a glance at a London project where steel is re-used whole, not melted and recast, as an example of what retaining embodied carbon can mean.

Jordan Schumacher from Woods Bagot took us into the challenge of what happens when the high end marketing house M&C Saatchi, no less, wants a heritage building it occupies to be fully renovated to modern standards but without losing a stick of furniture.

The pitchfest

The tough work of selecting the next green unicorn came down to our pitchfest judges Jonathan Hannam of Taronga Ventures, Mick Liubinskas of Climate Salad and Kerry Series of NorthStar Impact.

The judges were wowed by the incredibly polished and charmed performance of Alf Wheeler with his Zeoform, which as we mentioned won the day. But seriously the other four contestants were equally brilliant in their solutions for various parts of the built environment: Brendan Lee with hisClosed Loop Environmental Solutions; Klara Marosszeky and The Australian Hemp Masonry Company; Maurice Lake of Buildonix; and George Reinke of Reynard Wood.

More to come on these, including a podcast with the highly entertaining Wheeler.

Timber is an increasingly volatile topic

Rounding out the day were the feelings, passions and science of timber and whether we can continue to make it front and centre of our sustainability transition.

On the two panels were: Barnaby Hartford-Davis of Cox Architecture, Jason Ross from Wood Central; Matt de Jongh of Responsible Wood; Melanie Robertson of Forest Stewardship Council; Jonas Bengtsson of Edge Environment and Susie Russell of North Coast Environment Council

There’s so much still to report on – and we plan to do so –but it was a brilliant discussion with a surprising result from the audience that overwhelmingly did not agree that timber was the answer to our sustainability dreams.

But you can’t Google that. So much of what’s really happening is under the radar.

Watch this space – it’s where we will tell you what’s really going on – under the glossy surface of the PR world.

Comments from the socials – a taste of the feedback:

Matt Williams of LCI on Novon Lighting, responding to a query on his original post.

“The genius was that it magnetically attached into the old fitting so it was safer and faster to do in occupied floors.”

Williams even offered stats:

• 90 per cent of the fitting retained
• >60 per cent less embodied carbon versus replacing the whole fitting
• >60,000 tCO2e carbon saved (I’m being generous because units weren’t stated so I’m claiming the emissions associated with the annual emissions of about 13,000 cars, rather than the annual emissions of only 13 cars, though it might be the latter). Smart idea anyway and any dematerialisation is a good thing regardless of the specific quantum.

From Caroline Pidcock: A great day with so many people making so many fabulous diverse projects, materials and products happen – my heart is lifted! Thank you all.

From Gionata Comacchio: “What an afternoon! It was great to attend yesterday’s Circular Disruption Forum, organised by The Fifth Estate at the Greenhouse Climate Tech Hub. “How materials, products and investment are shaping the sustainability evolution. A forum for a low-carbon built environment.” There were many insightful presentations and debates for a designer invested in sustainability like myself.

I particularly appreciated:

• The discussion on new rules and regulations around embodied carbon and the search for reliable carbon-accounting tools (NABERS, Matrak).
• The ambitious project examples grounded in circularity (Atelier Ten, Woods Bagot)
• The fascinating research on emerging materials, whether recycled or bio-based (Fieldwork, Queensland University of Technology).
• The passionate debate about timber as the sustainability solution of our dreams. Spoiler: it is only one of many solutions, and much depends on how it is sourced, used and handled at the end of its lifecycle.

And as always, it was a pleasure to spend time with smart, thoughtful people both new and familiar. Thanks again to The Fifth Estate for organising such a great event.

Stephen Mitchell: Great to be at Circular Disruption in Sydney this afternoon. Just heard about EPDs by BlueScope and Dulux Powder Coatings Australia being used by Novon Lighting to measure and reduce environmental impact of their light fittings and solutions.

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