In conjunction with its members and the wider sector, FIS is developing an exciting new reuse pilot project to reduce the environmental impact of the fit-out sector and embodied carbon emissions and waste from strip out projects.
Surveys have shown that there is a growing appetite for enabling more reused products into commercial projects. However, there are a number of practical barriers for reuse. Often, there is little time and space on site to segregate and store products to be picked up by an organisation for reuse. Construction projects are very time dependant and any delays to a project timeline can be very costly. In order for the project team to specify reused products, they need to be confident that the products will be available at the time of installation and that the products meet the right quality requirements.
The reuse initiative seeks to remove these barriers, by collaborating with industry stakeholders to create a physical hub to store, process and distribute quality reuse products.
The pilot will take place in London and focus on two products: metal suspended ceiling systems and luminaires used in Cat A and will run for 12 months.
To support the initiative, FIS is looking for a project manager (on short-term contract or a secondee) to work alongside its sustainability champion and its CEO to deliver the pilot. More details here.
The project also requires a storage facility up to 200m2 of safe and secure storage space for six months, with the ability to grow in the future. More details here.
FIS CEO Iain Mcilwee said:
“I am excited about this project, we talk a lot about circularity, but sometimes I worry the hot air is contributing to climate change! This is a concerted effort to actually do something material, to learn as a collective and start, I hope, to catalyse change. We simply can’t carry on generating waste like we do – urban mining, reuse and circular thinking is essential in this.”
If you are interested in finding more about the project or joining the Reuse Initiative Working Group contact flavielowres@thefis.org