With escalating environmental challenges, dwindling natural resources, and growing demand for infrastructure, the transition to a Circular Built Environment (CBE) – where materials are reused, building lifecycles extended, and sustainable design prioritized – is more critical than ever.
So, what’s preventing the shift from our current linear model, where we destroy what’s there and rebuild, to a sustainable, circular approach? And how can we better use existing infrastructure and natural resources to offer more affordable housing, more resilient buildings and cities, and more stable supply chains and raw material prices?
At a recent Impact Live event, Building Tomorrow: Circular Strategies for Canada’s Urban Future, top industry leaders, innovators, and sustainability advocates tackled these questions head-on. The panel — featuring Enlai Hooi (Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects), David Messer (Climate Smart Buildings Alliance), Hazel Sutton (JLL Canada), and moderator, Tima Bansal (Ivey Business School) — explored the path to profitable, sustainable transformation in Canada and beyond. While a wealth of insights were shared, we’ve “constructed” the key takeaways to keep you, and your business, informed.
A finite planet, infinite waste
Across all sectors, businesses are being challenged to rethink waste management, with the objective of eliminating waste altogether. The built environment is no exception. While reduce and recycle efforts have been in place for years, panelists agreed this is no longer sufficient. A complete shift in mindset is needed — starting with the stark reality that we have only one planet and must consider: what happens to our waste when there’s nowhere left for it to go?
“To all intents and purposes, we are living in a closed system, but we don’t act like it,” said Hooi.
To address this, Hooi suggests a priority framework for circularity, starting with maximizing the use of what you already have. Next, transform components before repurposing them. Reuse should precede recycling, and recycling should only lead to downcycling – turning materials into lower-quality products – as a last resort. Crucially, we must not rely on lower-priority actions, assuming they alone will solve the problem.
“Just because we put something in the recycling bin doesn’t mean we’re doing something good,” said Hooi.
Don’t forget carbon in the equation
Although circularity offers systems thinkers a powerful lens for redesigning the take-make-use-waste economy, panelists also emphasized the critical role of embodied carbon (the carbon required to create a building’s materials) in the built environment – particularly pressing given that the construction industry accounts for 25 to 40 per cent of global carbon emissions.
Messer said many regulations across the country are already shifting toward carbon reduction, signaling its growing significance. While circularity can contribute to carbon neutrality, he said it's only one piece of a much larger, complex puzzle. Messer urged panelists and viewers to consider carbon offsetting, even carbon regeneration, alongside circular strategies.
“How can we move from a situation where buildings add carbon to the atmosphere, to a place where we’re making buildings increasingly carbon sink? Where we’re capturing carbon, reducing it, and making it regenerative?” he asked.
Designing buildings for what’s next
Bansal said circularity, though complex, can be understood in three tactics: future-proofing new buildings, repurposing existing ones, and selecting reused materials. A major focus of the panel was the importance of intentional design, thinking not just about a building's current use, but potential future uses.
“We build infrastructure for today’s needs, not tomorrow’s,” Bansal said.
Sutton highlighted that this principle extends to the tenant level, where building interiors are frequently renovated to meet shifting requirements and styles – a crucial consideration, given that one-third of building emissions stem from interior design.
To counter this, panelists called on designers, developers, and owners to consider a building’s full lifecycle from the outset and involve the right experts from the beginning. By thoughtfully planning elements – such as ceiling heights, building depth, circulation, modular features, and material quality – structures can be designed to adapt to multiple future uses.
Make the right decision the easiest one
While a circular approach offers clear economic and sustainability benefits, North America has been slow to adopt it. Panelists pointed to several barriers – the cost and quality of reused materials, time constraints in sustainable building, and restrictive regulations that hamper the use of reused materials. But ultimately, they boiled it down to one core issue: it’s too hard.
Though the industry is eager to embrace circularity, resources aren’t in place. The linear model – relying on virgin materials and standardized design – remains easier and more cost-effective. For developers, lack of time and access to the right people and materials make the shift to circularity feel overwhelming.
“How do we join up to create networks that make it easy to get the products and the materials you need; in the moments you need them?” asked Sutton.
In response, panelists called for a centralized infrastructure to streamline the process, connecting industry players with reliable suppliers to ensure they have access to the right materials when they need them.
The stAIrcase to circularity
Like many industries, artificial intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionize the built environment, and its impact is already evident. Hooi introduced one compelling innovation – an advanced AI tool that scans buildings, models alternative uses, and evaluates zoning, building codes, and key architectural factors, streamlining the transformation process. This could be key to reducing office vacancies, where empty buildings monopolize city centres, and stranded assets lack clear solutions. Building owners, eager to repurpose these spaces, often struggle to identify the best use – here, AI is poised to be a game-changer.
Bulldozing the model
While panelists showcased current examples of circularity in the industry, they unanimously agreed that real, system-wide change requires a shift in the model – and it all comes down to money.
Our linear economy, from funding to insurance, is built to support new construction and the resulting waste. But what if financial institutions redefined return on investment? Instead of prioritizing short-term gains, what if they considered the lifecycle of a building and its future use? While sustainable, adaptable design demands more upfront investment, it would reduce future costly repairs and secure longer-term earnings,
“If we really took lifecycle costing and future lives seriously, it wouldn’t make any financial sense to not build for adaptability,” said Hooi.
Panelists stressed that the insurance industry, alongside financial institutions, is vital to supporting a circular economy. Currently, with limited data and many unknowns in the CBE, the risks remain too high for insurers. This highlights the urgent need for more trials and experiments in circularity to generate data and drive the necessary shift in the model.
“Insurance underlays so much of this – it underlays everything in civilization, really. Especially high-risk things like the built environment,” said Messer. “It doesn’t matter if it’s legally allowed, if you can’t get insurance to do it, you’re not going to do it.”
Though changing the model won't be easy, panelists remained optimistic. Noting the growing appreciation for CBE, they called on industry leaders to advocate for change at every level. They also urged stakeholders to push policy-makers toward adopting the CBE model for broader impact. Finally, with the built environment’s many fragmented elements, panelists emphasized the need for stronger collaboration across the industry to establish a unified approach and shared language that fully embraces circularity and drives a more sustainable, prosperous future.
To learn more about the Circular Built Environment, and to view the entire panel discussion, visit Ivey’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/o5Lvcp9mIRw
