Great Portland Estates Plc (LON:GPE) recently hosted its inaugural ‘Seeing is Believing’ event at 30 Duke Street, St James’s, W1, convening industry leaders, supply chain partners and ‘Circularity in Practice’ signatories to showcase a series of industry firsts in circular building practices, delivering on its sustainability commitments.
‘Circularity in Practice’ is a nationwide, voluntary initiative inspired by His Majesty The King, bringing together a business-led, cross-sector taskforce to accelerate the adoption of proven circular solutions, focused on practical action, across materials processing and reuse, helping to accelerate their wider adoption. Businesses are encouraged to work together, developing good practice to reduce waste and make better use of resources.
As part of its participation in the initiative, GPE used the event to demonstrate how the principles of the circular economy are embedded across its development pipeline, from cutting embodied carbon and reducing reliance on virgin materials to integrating reuse into design, procurement and construction.
The event highlighted that 30 Duke Street has delivered a series of industry firsts:
- Reused and recycled structural steel at scale from another GPE owned development; 450 tonnes reused at 30 Duke Street, and 400+ tonnes returned to the market for future use
- Recycled aluminium window frames and recycled glass facade
- Reused Portland stone; 21 tonnes from the original French Railways House repurposed on site
- Original staircase marble repurposed in the reception; original mosaics retained within end-of-journey facilities; reused raised access floor tiles throughout
The building is also fully pre-let well ahead of practical completion, following entering into a new headlease with The Crown Estate, highlighting the commercial value that circularity can create.
Looking forward, GPE’s Circular Economy Focus Group is aiming to extend circularity across the full development lifecycle, tackling insurance and warranty barriers, advancing circularity in concrete, improving fit-out circularity and using transparent disclosure to encourage wider industry progress. Through its innovative Circularity Score, it has set challenging goals across its development programme for materials reuse.
Frank Blande, Head of Sustainability at Great Portland Estates: “Circularity is no longer an ambition for GPE, it is becoming part of how we design, procure and deliver our buildings. By working closely with our supply chain, we are proving that reused materials can be delivered at scale, reducing carbon, cutting waste and creating value for our customers, communities and the wider industry.”
Michelle Pinggera, Circularity in Practice spokesperson, said: “Circularity in Practice exists to bring businesses together around practical solutions that already work. GPE has shown how circular principles can be applied across the development lifecycle, creating value while reducing waste. The more organisations that share practical experience and build on proven approaches, the faster we can accelerate meaningful change.”
