THE BUILDING AS A MATERIAL BANK Materials passports solve a simple problem: ensuring that information about the materials used in a building is never lost. With a materials passport, every demolition company knows exactly what systems and materials are present in the building, their composition, and how to dismantle them in order to recover them. How does it work in practice? A materials passport is a precise, digital inventory that is updated throughout the life of a building. Each component – from concrete to technical equipment – has a digital identity card: type, quantity, location, carbon impact, potential for reuse or recycling. The information created during construction and updated at each stage of the building’s life cycle remains accessible decades later. The building thus becomes a resource. Why is this crucial? To provide an overview of what can be transformed and reused when dismantling the building: recycled glazing, crushed concrete for new structures, reconditioned technical equipment, reused dropped ceilings, etc. The result is less extraction of virgin resources, less waste, and lower CO2 emissions. THE REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN The recent Alcimed report(1) on pre-demolition audit practices and usage highlights this: in France, the UK, and Sweden, for example, pre-demolition audits are carried out before the call for tenders, then disappear into the back of a drawer. Deconstruction companies very rarely use them. Why? The data is not harmonized, and the information is often unusable. As a result, each project has to starts from scratch, with the costs and wasted time that this entails. Materials passports will put an end to this absurd situation and create the link that was missing: a permanent digital memory, accessible to everyone in the chain. In the UK and Nordic countries, platforms such as Circuland – a London-based start-up specializing in digital passports – are already pioneers in this field. Concular, from Germany, goes further by supporting the entire process: from consulting to software (resource passports, life cycle assessments), right through to the supply of circular materials. As a result, demolition becomes a question of resource management rather than waste management. Take EDGE Südkreuz in Berlin, for example. This 32,000 m2 office complex, Germany’s largest hybrid timber building, is registered with Madaster, a digital passport platform that documents materials, their carbon impact, and their potential for reuse or recycling. Each component has a digital identity card. In thirty or fifty years, the demolition contractors will be able to consult this inventory instead of starting from scratch. This will result in time savings, cost savings and, above all, optimal use of materials. The materials passport thus becomes the missing link between diagnosis and action. Circular demolition is no longer a promise, but a reality. Pre-demolition audits identify the materials present in a building, but too often end up gathering dust in a drawer. The solution? Materials passports. Their promise? Use of data to increase circularity across the entire value chain. SPOTLIGHT Demolition and circularity: materials passports are set to change everything (1) Alcimed report. Study conducted for Saint-Gobain on the practices and uses of pre-demolition audits, their regulatory framework, and their potential role in the development of circularity. The analysis covered four European countries: France, UK, Sweden and Germany. 115 114
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