2022 for healthy, circular resolutions in construction practice - here's how!
06 January 2022
An opinion piece by Chaline Church Founding Director, Editor, 540 WORLD
Thankfully, it’s 2022 and the A, B, C, D (Alpha, Brexit, Covid, Delta) words are finally moving toward recent history, leaving us all a bit bewildered and bruised, but at the same time reset for impacting this new year, better than before. COP26 and Build Back Better still echo in our collective ears but 540 WORLD finds itself in a very exciting space which will affect every one of us and which we are sharing for the first time today with the Futurebuild community.
We have just been voted Sustainability Company of the Year for 2021 (thank you BAIT – businessandindustrytoday.co.uk) and the Environment Agency’s TEAM 2100 is fast-tracking their move to healthy and circular infrastructure in collaboration with ourselves and Jacobs. We think of this as one of the best Christmas presents ever for the UK as it’s the first time a wide set of robust performance categories have been selected and embedded into the EA TEAM2100’s contracts in such a deeply practical manner.
We are all a bit tired of greenwash messages and words without actions, so seeing the EA putting meaty actions onto the bones of their previous steps of due diligence and goal-setting is one we can all be proud of and thankful for. For example, TEAM2100 were the first in the world to replace slow-growing tropical hardwood with a fast-growing sustainable Accoya® wood fender alternative in the Thames Estuary, collaborating with Accsys Technologies who make Accoya, International Timber and 540 WORLD to truly build back better.
Ideating is great – but when we collectively inspected the fender and found it to be as stable in river water as the manufacturer promised with the bonus of it being well hung with wonderful flora and microbes in this unique estuarine environment, the possibilities of saving countless hardwoods became a reality.
Like Accoya wood, every Cradle to Cradle Certified® product is assessed and verified by independent third party assessors and evaluated across five performance categories, namely: the material health of the product, circularity, clean air and climate protection, water and soil stewardship and social fairness. Accoya achieved Cradle to Cradle Certified® at Gold level, the highest achieved in the world which is why we recommended it to the Environment Agency in support of making their new goals practical.
The EA’s TEAM2100 announced on Futurebuild’s Gamechangers on 20 May that they had embraced the healthiest and most evidence-based products certification programme on the planet in their new contracts with an holistic multi-category set of goals to exemplar building back better. Now we are on the coal face – a part of this fiercely active team imbedding safe and circular infrastructure like it’s never been done before. Every product that is Cradle to Cradle Certified®, that replaces an old linear legacy product, means that the product is verified and assessed for material health at the parts per million to ensure unhealthy pigments and toxins do not enter our water, soil and air as well as being circular, socially fair and assessed for C02 emissions.
For 2022, Futurebuild chose 540 WORLD to be their key ‘Circular’ Innovation Partner, representing safe and circular materials, verified by their Cradle to Cradle Certified® mark. We are placed geographically as neighbours to Futurebuild’s keynote stage in the centre of London’s Excel for 1-3 March 2022 for our showcase 64m2 stand E40. Once again, we are featuring world-first innovations in materials and products, Cradle to Cradle Certified® of course, alongside related services.
540 WORLD are presenting on four of Futurebuild’s knowledge-sharing venues – live on Keynotes Stage 1 (Interiors) on 2 March at 11.15am, live on the Keynotes Stage 2 (Resourceful Materials) on 2 March at 1.15pm, live on the Digital Impact stage on 3 March at 2.15pm and virtually in February 2022 (date tbc). Here is the link to our Futurebuild keynote speakers for the case study presentation on the ‘Landmark case study: the first UK Cradle to Cradle Certified® materials retrofit showcasing ten materials pioneering regenerative interior design’ on the Interiors stage venue. Here the link to our keynote speakers on Keynotes Stage 2 (Resourceful Materials), presenting the topic, ‘Ten breakthrough waste-free innovations pioneering regenerative design: case studies you can question’.
540 WORLD are showcasing a range of innovative indoor and outdoor materials and services at Futurebuild 2022 (stand E40), including Accoya® wood, International Timber, C02-absorbing Graphenstone paint, Magna Glaskeramik glass panels (that can be curved), Honext waste fibre panels (that can also curve and have none of the usual toxins found in mdf), Mosa tiles (which now have demountable options), Whitecroft lighting, Shaw Contract carpet tiles (who have one of the most mature take-back systems in the country), Staco Steel (who now have multiple factories and a huge range of C2C Certified steel and aluminium products), Grohe Sanitary fittings (showing the world’s first C2C Certified® range of shower and mixers) growing walls by Eco Foundry and more. Needless to say, our range of verified new materials and innovative products was why we were the most visited Futurebuild stand in 2020 and why we believe we are a not to be missed feature for your 2022 diary.
Here are the live links to view our key collaborative partners already featured on the Futurebuild website:
We are already taking meetings for manufacturers, so if you would like to be in direct contact before Futurebuild or for a meeting about your live project, please do not hesitate to connect with 540 WORLD, email info@540.world. View the free Cradle to Cradle® Design Directory at www.540.world and help us make 2022 a year full of fond memories as we collaboratively build a healthier, circular built environment that’s future-proofed for beyond the year it’s built.
If you or your company want to discuss how to assess your products or access C2C Certified materials or innovate you products or supply chain, please connect, we would love to help you make more safe and circular products. Otherwise, we at 540 WORLD wish you all a safe and restorative New Year and we look forward to meeting you in person 1-3 March 2022!
