
A Circularity Score for Architecture and Interior Design Projects
In Summer 2024 METROPOLIS brought together visionaries from across the building industry for its Circular Future Hackathon, aimed at reimagining how we design and construct in a way that aligns with circular design principles. Representatives and sustainability experts across global firms, manufacturers, and industry organizations joined forces to tackle the building sector’s greatest circularity obstacles. Following the virtual workshops, METROPOLIS shaped these concepts into comprehensive seven forward-thinking solutions.
Shown here is A Circularity Score for Architecture and Interior Design Projects by hackathon participants Peter Duckworth-Pilkington, HDR; Lauren Gardner, MSR Design; Shannon Goodman, Lifecycle Building Center; Arathi Gowda, ZGF; Ratish Namboothiry, Legrand; Ryan Smith, 3form; Kathryn Soter, The Good Future Alliance; Jennifer Stormont, MIller Hull; Frances Yang, Arup; and Avinash Rajagopal, editor in chief, METROPOLIS.
How can we assess if a building or interior project helps move us closer to the circular economy? How can we judge its achievements in eliminating waste, circulating materials at their highest value, and regenerating natural systems? The RESOLVE framework, developed in 2016 by McKinsey and the Ellen MacArthur foundation, was intended to help all sectors of the economy move toward circularity. Arup’s Circular Buildings Toolkit made the first attempt to apply its recommendations to the building sector. Here we adapt those tenets to an assessment system. While this certainly isn’t a comprehensive scoring system—the specific metrics and appropriate verification methods are far from clear, yet—the assessment inquiries and draft scores below are thought starters that enterprising project teams might adopt to gauge their own progress toward circularity.

Regenerate
- What impacts does this project have on local ecosystems? Have the negative impacts been assessed, addressed, and mitigated?
- Has all waste been avoided in the construction of this project? Is there a plan to reduce and eliminate waste in the operation of the project?
- Does this project do anything to restore and increase the resilience of ecosystems?
- Does this project return biological nutrients to the biosphere through composting, anaerobic digestion, and the recovery of bio-chemicals such as biogas?
- Does this project generate any by-products or nutrients in its construction or operation that could benefit other projects, markets, or revenue streams?
Share
- Does the project replace any assets or systems that would conventionally be purchased with any shared assets, or participate in any shared services?
- Does the project encourage sharing of spaces and assets within its footprint?
- Does the project leverage an asset management platform to exchange goods and services between its tenants or occupants?
- Does the project have a system of responsibly deaccessioning products or materials to give them a second life?
Optimize
- Does the project make optimal use of resources, as evidenced by exceeding benchmarks for energy efficiency, water usage, embodied carbon, or waste?
- Does the project employ any construction or design strategies to eliminate waste of materials and resources to the maximum extent possible?
- Are the projects and its components designed by durability and longevity? Is the long use of project products and materials encouraged by leases, purchasing agreements, tenant agreements, or other frameworks?
- Does the project have a reverse logistics process in place, providing supply chain connections to reclaim, reuse, or recycle any components or materials that reach the end of their use for the project?
Loop
- Does the project maximize the use of repurposed materials, components, and structures, and minimize the use of virgin materials?
- Does the project leverage design for disassembly strategies in its structure, systems, furnishings, and fixtures?
- Does the project leverage regular maintenance, refurbishment, and repair to prevent the frequent, wasteful replacement of materials or components?
Virtualize
- Does the project use digital services or apps to monitor and optimize the use of resources?
- Does the project use digital services or apps in place of any physical assets?
- Does the project leverage virtual spaces to enhance or replace physical amenities, thereby allowing a reduction in space, resource, or energy use?
- Does the project deliver any services remotely or virtually to eliminate waste or underutilization of resources?
Exchange
- Does the project approach material and systems selection with an eye to the minimal possible use of resources and energy?
- Are conventional materials, systems, or energy on the project being replaced with renewable materials, systems, or energy?
- Does the project employ alternative materials, thereby paving the way for mainstream acceptance of more circular and renewable materials?
- Are conventional materials and systems being exchanged for non-renewable but more advanced technologies and materials, resulting in lower use of materials, resources, or energy?
- Does the project exchange product ownership for product leasing, virtual product use, or product sharing?