Edinburgh Napier University

  The BSI has recently published the world’s first standard on the Circular Economy. The standard is intentionally broad and inclusive to suit all types of organisations and products. However, when it comes to complex products such as buildings – with large numbers of stakeholders, long lifespans, high uncertainties about future scenarios, and formed of multiple products interacting both temporally and geographically – there is a question as to whether BS 8001’s inclusiveness and breadth are best suited to promoting real change.

This briefing paper presents a review and a critique of BS 8001 from the perspective of buildings. The paper demonstrates that the standard collates much of the existing information on the circular economy in a commendably comprehensive document. However while it offers a useful resource for the novice, within the context of buildings the standard does not deal with their complexity. It therefore falls short of identifying effective approaches to reduce the environmental impacts and waste streams caused by buildings, and thus misses the opportunity to accelerate the transition to a ‘circular’ built environment. A final section offers some additional documents and resources that could be helpful to those wishing to adopt the circular economy principles within the built environment.