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Over the past decade, there’s been an increasing recognition that our buildings play a crucial role in achieving sustainability goals. This is reflected in numerous revisions to the Building Regulations, particularly Part L, which emphasise designing energy-efficient buildings.
Architects have become skilled at selecting materials for their thermal properties, ensuring they contribute to an airtight thermal envelope. However, at Changing Streams, we believe the focus has been too much on material performance and not enough on material composition. While we’ve become adept at understanding what materials do, we need to pay equal attention to what materials are made of.
Encouragingly, there is a shift happening. Discussions about operational energy and carbon now often include embodied carbon, which is integral to the RIBA’s sustainability targets. This broader approach is essential for balancing national net-zero carbon goals. Yet, to fully address sustainability, we must also consider the plastic content in building products.
Plastic is a persistent problem. It takes years to degrade, is rarely recycled more than a few times, and often ends up in incineration or the ecosystem. We’ve seen the impacts on wildlife and read about microplastics in our food and water. While the spotlight is often on retail plastics, the construction sector is the second-largest consumer of plastic. The UK construction industry alone produces 50,000 tons of plastic packaging waste annually. If unaddressed, plastic pollution from construction could triple by 2060, leading to over a billion tons of waste.
Given this context, the role of architects and the design team in specifying materials is crucial. The question we at Changing Streams focus on is: How can we reduce the use of plastic in construction? Since 2018, in partnership with the University of Liverpool, we’ve been raising awareness, engaging industry leaders, and conducting groundbreaking research through our dedicated research centre within The School of Environmental Sciences. This research provides essential insights for reducing plastic in real-world projects.
But research alone isn’t enough. To make a significant impact, we must equip the industry with practical tools and information. This led to the creation of Changing Materials, an independent database designed to help architects and specifiers choose alternatives to plastic in their projects. Unlike other databases, Changing Materials is impartial, not influenced by manufacturers or suppliers, ensuring unbiased information.
We’re at the beginning of this ambitious journey and invite architects to collaborate with us. Engage with our data, challenge our findings, and contribute new materials and ideas. We also welcome manufacturers to include their products in our database. By working together, we can overcome outdated norms and drive the construction industry towards a sustainable future.
Dr. Gareth Abrahams, co-founder and director of Changing Streams CIC, and senior lecturer in Environmental Sciences at the University of Liverpool is at the forefront of this initiative, guiding the way towards reducing plastic in construction.
