10097902Enabling the transition to a circular economy with construction products: User-focussed design testing with deconstruction contractors to develop user-functionality and business-model proposition of alpha-beta stage digital productClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe UK's construction industry lacks circularity. Despite being the UK's most wasteful industry by volume, construction product and material reuse rates are below 2%. The embodied carbon in producing replacement products through deconstruction accounts for over a tenth of GHG emissions. To meet net-zero targets, product manufacturers, UK real estate owners, construction professionals and demolition contractors need an industry where construction products can be reused at scale, which will involve the growth of OEM take-back schemes as well as site-to-site exchange of building components. Material Index (MI) is a UK-based construction technology SME specialised in enabling the reuse of construction products. It's digital platform allows built environment contractors and professionals to carry out inventories of construction products within real estate assets (pre-demolition audits) connected to a B2B marketplace function connected to OEM manufacturers and professional resellers. MI enables real estate developers and product manufacturers to trace and reuse materials within buildings, allowing them to calculate and reduce embodied carbon. MI's mission is to drive down carbon emissions by enabling the UK construction industry across the supply and value chain, to transition to circular practices. Working in collaboration with General Demolition (GD), a large responsibly-minded demolition and deconstruction contractor, and Design Researcher and Strategist Milly Derbyshire (MD), MI will undertake an intensive user-focussed design research project which will use findings from a rigorous testing environment with features of a living laboratory to best adapt their product to users' requirements. The project will enable MI's product to meet market needs and move the UK towards a zero future at a crucial juncture.