March 14^th 2024 – In the Netherlands it’s The Week of the Circular Economy, and we’re eager to address the topic. There are many aspects in the design, engineering and production processes of our projects that are related to circularity.

To name a few of these aspects: with our approach to engineering we are careful to keep the waste during production to a minimum and aluminium production waste immediately returns to the recycling bin. In our new assembly hall, we produce large façade elements: as large as possible. This strategy reduces transportation to the construction site and decreases the need for packaging materials. The conditioned working environment also allow us to monitor and guarantee quality and ensure a longer lifespan for our products.

Functionality

But ‘circularity’ goes beyond the facades themselves. We also need to look at the functionality of the facades and the usability and comfort of the buildings they envelop. Sun-shading facades can significantly improve the energy efficiency of a building. A double façade not only has energetic benefits, but also offers better opportunities for natural ventilation and – with enough space between the glass and the façade – simplifies and reduces cleaning and maintenance. In a nutshell: there are many benefits during the operational phase of double, sun shading facades that can be traced back to circular ambitions.

Go further and better

Do we recognize ambitions and improvements to work on? Of course we do. The amount of recycled (post-consumer) aluminium in our facades can be improved, but the option often is (too) expensive. The main reason: the volume of aluminium  post-consumer scrap (in Europe) is simply not sufficient. And this could be attributed to the many aluminium (building) applications that are still functioning well (and are not eligible for scrapping). Talking about sustainability…

Standard or custom?

We believe that a market for the recycling entire facades could be a business case, but we don’t foresee that happening in the near future. We can anticipate for it to happen, by - for example - working with standard dimensions. But will that allow us to create unique, remarkable facades, like we do now? We believe it could happen, we see possibilities. But to make the trade in second-hand facades truly appealing, the entire construction industry would need to adopt standard dimensions. This immediately identifies the biggest challenges of the circular construction economy: collaboration, information exchange, and standardization within the construction sector. Only when this happens, structural circularity will come full circle.

Having said that: we welcome discussions that will move our industry towards a circular economy. Please join us in that ambition!