Democratized, comparable and actionable circularity metrics for building products

AI Quick Summary

Building materials are responsible for 11% of the worlds emissions and 50% of all waste. Innovative products offer the opportunity to reduce these impacts. However, architects today are flooded with information that is hard to understand and use in their decision making process.2050 Materials is a con-tech startup that wants to develop circularity metrics on building materials which are understandable and actionable by stakeholders in the construction sector. What problem would you like to solve?The construction sector is responsible for 40% of global GHG emissions and 50% of all waste. A huge component of these impacts comes from the materials used to construct a building. During the past few years, there have been huge improvements in reducing this impact by using bio-based materials, utilizing waste or recycled materials as well as by facilitating end-of-life re-use of products (through take back schemes, design for disassembly, etc.). However, designers today are flooded with information that is hard to understand and therefore use in their decision making process. The lack of transparency and comparability of information, as well as the absence of designer-friendly tools to research building products are the key barrier in specifying, and eventually building, with recycled and circular building products. We are proposing to collect available information on building products and develop circularity metrics which are comparable across a range of products according to their application, performance and material type. 2050 Materials is already developing a platform for sustainable building products with a trial period beginning in February 2022 and members from some of the largest design offices in Europe. Having the support of the CBI Booster to develop these metrics while trialing the platform would give us a unique opportunity to have a direct feedback loop from key industry members and therefore develop a solution which is applicable to their processes. Who are the customers and how will they benefit from your solution?There are two customer types. The main customers who benefit from this product are architects and designers who are looking to specify alternative products with the goal of reducing embodied carbon emissions as well as to increase the circularity (i.e. re-use) potential of their projects. We are solving 2 existing issues for designers:1. We centralize all information provided by manufacturers (e.g. certifications, product catalogs, circularity assessments). This reduces the product research time from days to a few minutes and enables designers to discover new products which fulfill their project requirements.2. We simplify the information and offer metrics which are comparable across products. This democratizes sustainability assessments and allows designers to communicate this information to other stakeholders (contractors, clients, etc.), empowering smaller projects (without budget for sustainability consultants) to confidently assess products in the early design stages. Beyond designers, we aim to target product manufacturers who will pay for our circularity assessment of their products. The motivation to pay comes from the fact that we believe simplified metrics by an independent party can generate new leads for these companies. As we aim to offer these metrics through the 2050 Materials platform, we are offering client analytics for a monthly fee to manufacturers (e.g. insights on who looks at their products, key differentiating factors that lead to specifications, etc.) Who are the existing persons/companies in your team and what is their role?We are a diverse team of 5 coming from backgrounds in sustainability, construction, software engineering and architecture. Stephanos Stephanov is a co-founder and head of business development & partnerships. His role at 2050 materials is to create and maintain partnerships with large certification bodies and manufacturers. He has a background in quantity surveying and cost consulting and has spent the last 7 years working in large commercial construction projects in London, UK. Chandrashekar Challagonda is a co-founder and CTO. During the last 20 years he has led software development teams in small, medium and large organizations and has founded and sold two software companies of his own. Chandra’s work ensures that the infrastructure of the 2050 Materials platform allows researchers to experiment, develop and release data models to the users. Phanos Hadjikyriakou is the third co-founder and CEO of 2050 Materials. He has a background in environmental modelling and has spent 6 years advising investors on how to reduce climate risk and maximize their opportunities in a changing economy. He derives knowledge from the ESG space to help lead the metrics development at 2050 Materials.Raquel Guerra Aragonés is an architect and researcher focusing on mapping the sustainability ecosystem in the construction sector. Her work at 2050 Materials helps the team identify and develop metrics which are in-line with the current processes of work, such as achieving a building certification (e.g. Minergie ECO).Firehiwot Nesro Kedir is a PhD candidate at the Innovative and Industrial Construction at the ETH Zurich. She’s working with 2050 Materials on a need basis to provide input on modelling practices and life-cycle assessment standards. How does your challenge have a positive impact on the planet (e.g., material reduction, CO2 emission reduction)?By increasing transparency and data tracking around building products and enabling comparability of available choices we empower architects to design more circular, lower embodied-carbon emission and lower water footprint buildings. In anecdotal discussions we’ve had with large architectural practices during the past year, we have heard that a product assessment which considers embodied carbon and circularity aspects can lead to 15% lower emissions and a reduction of waste up to 60%. We aim to enable every designer out there to achieve these reductions and build regenerative buildings for our cities. Has your idea been tested before?Yes. We have run a pilot project with 5 architectural companies during the summer of 2021 where we developed a draft circularity index for floor finishes. We iterated according to their feedback and we now believe we have a strong basis to expand the modelling to more product categories as well as to expand the scope of data included. What are you planning on working on throughout the booster (e.g., developing the business model, building an initial prototype, material for prototyping etc.)? What will you deliver at the end of the booster?During the booster we aim to build a prototype of the circularity metric applicable to all structural building products (i.e. foundation, frame, walls). We will deliver a methodology for the metric as well as the results of the model applied on 2000 products already listed on the 2050 Materials database. What are you expecting from the booster (e.g., looking for specific partners, expert support etc.)?We aim to get methodological support from research institutions such as EMPA on the scientific validity of the modelling we are developing. Additionally, we believe we could largely benefit from the network provided and create partnerships with Swiss companies in the construction sector who are working towards implementing a circularity strategy.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: Democratized, comparable and actionable circularity metrics for building products
Date: 11/26/2021 11:05:24 AM
Administrators:
- Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Project Idea Description

What problem would you like to solve?

The construction sector is responsible for 40% of global GHG emissions and 50% of all waste. A huge component of these impacts comes from the materials used to construct a building. During the past few years, there have been huge improvements in reducing this impact by using bio-based materials, utilizing waste or recycled materials as well as by facilitating end-of-life re-use of products (through take back schemes, design for disassembly, etc.). However, designers today are flooded with information that is hard to understand and therefore use in their decision making process. The lack of transparency and comparability of information, as well as the absence of designer-friendly tools to research building products are the key barrier in specifying, and eventually building, with recycled and circular building products.

We are proposing to collect available information on building products and develop circularity metrics which are comparable across a range of products according to their application, performance and material type. 2050 Materials is already developing a platform for sustainable building products with a trial period beginning in February 2022 and members from some of the largest design offices in Europe.

Having the support of the CBI Booster to develop these metrics while trialing the platform would give us a unique opportunity to have a direct feedback loop from key industry members and therefore develop a solution which is applicable to their processes.

Who are the customers and how will they benefit from your solution?

There are two customer types. The main customers who benefit from this product are architects and designers who are looking to specify alternative products with the goal of reducing embodied carbon emissions as well as to increase the circularity (i.e. re-use) potential of their projects.

We are solving 2 existing issues for designers:

1. We centralize all information provided by manufacturers (e.g. certifications, product catalogs, circularity assessments). This reduces the product research time from days to a few minutes and enables designers to discover new products which fulfill their project requirements.

2. We simplify the information and offer metrics which are comparable across products. This democratizes sustainability assessments and allows designers to communicate this information to other stakeholders (contractors, clients, etc.), empowering smaller projects (without budget for sustainability consultants) to confidently assess products in the early design stages.

Beyond designers, we aim to target product manufacturers who will pay for our circularity assessment of their products. The motivation to pay comes from the fact that we believe simplified metrics by an independent party can generate new leads for these companies. As we aim to offer these metrics through the 2050 Materials platform, we are offering client analytics for a monthly fee to manufacturers (e.g. insights on who looks at their products, key differentiating factors that lead to specifications, etc.)

Who are the existing persons/companies in your team and what is their role?

We are a diverse team of 5 coming from backgrounds in sustainability, construction, software engineering and architecture.

Stephanos Stephanov is a co-founder and head of business development & partnerships. His role at 2050 materials is to create and maintain partnerships with large certification bodies and manufacturers. He has a background in quantity surveying and cost consulting and has spent the last 7 years working in large commercial construction projects in London, UK.

Chandrashekar Challagonda is a co-founder and CTO. During the last 20 years he has led software development teams in small, medium and large organizations and has founded and sold two software companies of his own. Chandra’s work ensures that the infrastructure of the 2050 Materials platform allows researchers to experiment, develop and release data models to the users.

Phanos Hadjikyriakou is the third co-founder and CEO of 2050 Materials. He has a background in environmental modelling and has spent 6 years advising investors on how to reduce climate risk and maximize their opportunities in a changing economy. He derives knowledge from the ESG space to help lead the metrics development at 2050 Materials.

Raquel Guerra Aragonés is an architect and researcher focusing on mapping the sustainability ecosystem in the construction sector. Her work at 2050 Materials helps the team identify and develop metrics which are in-line with the current processes of work, such as achieving a building certification (e.g. Minergie ECO).

Firehiwot Nesro Kedir is a PhD candidate at the Innovative and Industrial Construction at the ETH Zurich. She’s working with 2050 Materials on a need basis to provide input on modelling practices and life-cycle assessment standards.

How does your challenge have a positive impact on the planet (e.g., material reduction, CO2 emission reduction)?

By increasing transparency and data tracking around building products and enabling comparability of available choices we empower architects to design more circular, lower embodied-carbon emission and lower water footprint buildings.

In anecdotal discussions we’ve had with large architectural practices during the past year, we have heard that a product assessment which considers embodied carbon and circularity aspects can lead to 15% lower emissions and a reduction of waste up to 60%. We aim to enable every designer out there to achieve these reductions and build regenerative buildings for our cities.

Has your idea been tested before?

Yes. We have run a pilot project with 5 architectural companies during the summer of 2021 where we developed a draft circularity index for floor finishes. We iterated according to their feedback and we now believe we have a strong basis to expand the modelling to more product categories as well as to expand the scope of data included.

What are you planning on working on throughout the booster (e.g., developing the business model, building an initial prototype, material for prototyping etc.)? What will you deliver at the end of the booster?

During the booster we aim to build a prototype of the circularity metric applicable to all structural building products (i.e. foundation, frame, walls). We will deliver a methodology for the metric as well as the results of the model applied on 2000 products already listed on the 2050 Materials database.

What are you expecting from the booster (e.g., looking for specific partners, expert support etc.)?

We aim to get methodological support from research institutions such as EMPA on the scientific validity of the modelling we are developing. Additionally, we believe we could largely benefit from the network provided and create partnerships with Swiss companies in the construction sector who are working towards implementing a circularity strategy.

2050 Materials is a con-tech startup that wants to develop circularity metrics on building materials which are understandable and actionable by stakeholders in the construction sector.