Postgraduate Course: Circular Economy in the Built Environment (EFIE11424)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The engineering and construction industries are the world's largest consumers of raw materials as well as biggest contributor to landfill. This course focuses on the economic, social and environmental advantages of employing circular economy principles in the construction industry.
It will give you the opportunity to explore the complex nature of the built environment and the necessity for the sector to adapt to advancing circular economy principles. You will look at the challenges of applying a circular economy to designing new or reusing buildings and large infrastructures so these long-lasting structures create a sustainable, efficient, and resilient future. |
| Course description |
During this course you will learn about key data related to built environment waste and current circular economy approaches. Analysing current policies and approaches adopted by different governments and industry, you will learn of key drivers, enablers and barriers within the sector. By applying this knowledge, students will have the capabilities to understand how circular economy could be adapted and progressed into the future. The context and scale of the built environment is from local to global, and thus the knowledge developed through the course can be applied to any and all sub-sectors of the built environment.
Course Content Covers:
- Key policies and guidance in the construction industry, learning from previous policy interventions and industry key data and exploring their impact.
- Exploration of pre-emptive actions and interventions that can be taken in the design stage, including the life cycle of a building post-construction and end-of-asset-life opportunities.
- Exploring industry product innovations which encompass CE approaches, and future opportunities for utilizing CE based products. Students will have the opportunity to appraise and investigate future CE pathways and needs.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute delivers many of its courses in hybrid mode. This means that you may have some online students joining sessions for this course. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: in some cases, students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- All presentations, and whole class discussions will be recorded (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details).
- You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 18,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following two assessment components:
1) Group Project and Presentation (20%)
Presentation submitted and presented by the group analysing specific CE approaches to buildings.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3
2) 3000 Word Individual Project Report (80%)
A project technical report template structure will be provided.
The project report will include foresighting, analysis, policy, sustainable development, data analysis. Each student will investigate a specific building / infrastructure (of their choice) to investigate and report on the applications of regeneration principles to maximize circular economy outcomes, embodied carbon savings and support societal needs.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve student performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Students will be able to submit their chosen building and up to 5 bullet points summarising their ideas for each section of the Report for formative feedback: circular economy outcomes, embodied carbon savings and supporting societal needs. This would be a maximum of two pages and, following review, would be returned with comments. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the main areas of circular economy and the built environment from pre-design interventions (Design for Deconstruction) to end-of-asset-life (Regeneration / maximizing existing assets).
- Explain the significance of key construction waste data and how critical analysis of such data is important in developing future policies and interventions supporting emissions reductions.
- Develop original and creative responses to key issues for the construction sector and circular economy.
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Reading List
Required Reading:
Arup (2018). From Principles to Practices: First Steps Towards a Circular Built Environment. https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/research/section/first-steps-towards-a-circular-built-environment
Selected chapters from: Cheshire, David (2016). Building Revolutions: Applying the Circular Economy to the Built Environment. RIBA Publishing.
Mohebbi, Golnaz, Ali Bahadori-Jahromi, Marco Ferri, and Anastasia Mylona. (2021). The Role of Embodied Carbon Databases in the Accuracy of Life Cycle Assessment Calculations for the Embodied Carbon of Buildings. Sustainability 13, no. 14: 7988. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147988
Smith, R.S. (2018) World Economic Forum. The world needs to build more than 2 billion new homes over the next 80 years. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/the-world-needs-to-build-more-than-two-billion-new-homes-over-the-next-80-years/
UK Green Building Council. (2020) Circular Economy How-to Guide: Reusing products and materials in built assets. https://ukgbc.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/05145434/how-to-guide-reuse.pdf
UK Parliament (2021) Reducing the whole life carbon impact of buildings. PostBrief No.44. https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pb-0044/
UK Green Building Council. (2019) Circular economy guidance for construction clients. https://ukgbc.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/05150937/Circular-Economy-Report.pdf
Additional Reading (Optional) Materials - to supplement readings and assist with assessment:
UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (2026). Version 1. (170 pages). [Note: this is for reference, students are not expected to read this entire document] https://www.nzcbuildings.co.uk/the-standard
Gillott, C., Davison, B. & Tingley D.D. (2022) Drivers, barriers and enablers: construction sector
views on vertical extensions: construction sector views on vertical extensions, Building Research &
Information, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2087173
Rahla, K.M., Mateus, R., Bragança, L. (2021) 'Selection Criteria for Building Materials and Components in Line with the Circular Economy Principles in the Built Environment: A Review of Current Trends'. Infrastructures, 6(4), 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6040049
Selected chapters from Regeneration of the Built Environment from a Circular Economy Perspective (2020). Springer Open. Eds. Della Torre, S., et al. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-33256-3
Watch/Listening List:
VIDEO: Circular Economy in the Built Environment: Innovation and Implementation (2018) Disruptive Innovation Festival, Ellen McArthur Foundation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2hyMZ0oA3w
VIDEO: Circular Building, a Learning Journey. (2017) Buildings at Arup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s03dNDg_hWQ
PODCAST: Sarah Wigglesworth on Building with Straw. (2021) Material Matters, with Grant Gibson. https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/material-matters-with-grant-gibson/sarah-wigglesworth-on-building-with-straw |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | EFI,PG,Circular Economy,Future Infrastructure,Resilience,Embodied Carbon,Built Environment |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Sean Smith
Tel:
Email: Sean.Smith@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Abby Gleave
Tel: (0131 6)51 1337
Email: abby.gleave@ed.ac.uk |
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