PreaDeM – Pre-demolition environmental assessment and Decision-Making platform

The project will undertake a feasibility study to determine how to measure the type and amount of materials, products and elements in a building and how they can best be a) reused and b) recycled at the end of their life. Currently this is undertaken through pre-refurbishment and pre-demolition audits but they can be time consuming and are mostly ineffective. By developing an 'automated bill of quantities', better decisions can be made about the future or our buildings. This includes whether buildings should be refurbished or demolished and the impact this will have in terms of the materials arising and their carbon impact balanced with operational energy savings. As part of refurbishment or demolition, it is important that the value in the materials that may arise is retained i.e. they are either reused or recycled at a high value; following the principles of the circular economy. The focus of the project is on social housing since the client (property owner) has an inherent drive to optimise their assets whilst considering the carbon and cost impacts of their operations. There is much attention on the housing stock, in terms of its ability to be upgraded to meet carbon emissions targets and the opportunities this brings for the supply chain and benefits to occupiers. The project will work across two main areas - low carbon refurbishment and optimising value retention at demolition via a simplified approach that will enable development of a platform (PreaDeM) through understanding the user requirements, integration of data and related tools, trialling on housing projects, development of the business model for adoption and a technical specification.