Material Index Platform
Innovation overview and development
Provide an overview of the product
Material Index offers a range of circular economy services to construction and real estate partners all available through our digital reuse platform. We enable material reuse at scale to lower costs, waste and carbon in construction.
Our platform enables users to complete detailed Pre-Demolition Audits and develop Existing Materials Passports with advanced environmental reporting. From these users can coordinate the purchase, donation and sale of reclaimed materials with trusted trade partners through our Exchange solution. The Material Index platform has been utilised in the end-to-end reuse of a wide range of building materials and components including doors, partition walls, glass panels, raised access flooring and services equipment.
For Design Teams, this quantification provides the level of information required to set ambitious reuse targets with confidence and evidence these in order to meet planning and policy requirements including BREEAM. For Contractors, our platform enables better data management and the coordination of deconstruction activities so that reuse is maximised, saving costs and diverting waste from landfill. For Building Owners, the cataloguing of materials unlocks the ability to coordinate reuse at scale and recoup the cost of any materials which are no longer required.
The Material Index platform is available as a web application making it accessible on both desktop and mobile devices, making it an ideal platform to use on site. A short demonstration of the platform has been provided as an attachment to this form.
How the digital innovation was developed
Over the past 2 years the Material Index Platform has been developed iteratively through it’s practical use on sites with key industry clients, including Fabrix, The Crown Estate, Derwent, British Land, Elliott Wood, General Demolition, HS2, QBRE and Cast Interiors – often with our in-house team providing auditing services and support.
Through this approach our platform has developed into a highly effective tool for cataloguing materials held within existing buildings, planning for their next use, and brokering any no longer needed items with trusted trade partners to remove items in bulk.
Details on the measurable commercial results
Our platform has been used on more than 70 projects in the UK. Through it projects are able to achieve a material reuse percentage of 19%, significantly greater than the industry average of 6%.
On one project – 1 Appold Street – for British Land, our end-to-end service led to the off site reuse of 20% of the 4.6 tonnes of materials audited. This included the reuse of more than 38,000 floor tiles.
How does this innovation improve processes
Our platform improves the speed at which audits can be undertaken and greatly increases the likelihood of reuse. Our end-to-end service offering ensures that reuse is not just planned for, it’s achieved, and our brokering service is actively pushing the creation and expansion of circular economy supply chains within the construction sector.
How might this innovation influence the specification
Our platform is able to provide detailed and realistic estimates of achievable reuse on projects. It is allows project teams to catalogue materials ahead of redevelopment and provides accessible dashboards which communicate the reuse needs of each materials to those responsible for their safe removal – changing the demolition specification to safeguard materials.
This also enables more materials to cross the redevelopment divide – allowing for retained and reused materials to be included in the design specification for redeveloped spaces. This is applicable to all items from commercial office fit out and interiors to structural frames.