The built environment has long recognised the contribution it makes to resource use and climate change emissions. Working out how to develop and maintain the infrastructure we need has been harder. For the transport infrastructure sector, designing out waste and pollution, designing for reuse, and regenerating natural systems must be immediate priorities.
Arup has written about how in the last decade a new paradigm for production and operation has emerged: the circular economy. It focuses on reducing resource consumption, emissions and waste and increasing the resilience of assets by designing for materials to remain in use and at their highest value for as long as possible. Although we can see an increasing number of sectors embracing this paradigm, the infrastructure sector is lagging.
Read more about this on their website.