Best practice adoption in Scotland’s built environment
This research report, accompanied by a complementary review from key industry stakeholders, provides a baseline understanding of awareness of and the extent to which best practice waste reduction measures are adopted in Scotland’s built environment sector. The study also includes insight into how the industry captures data for embodied carbon calculations.
Zero Waste Scotland recognised need to identify the greatest areas for impact in driving waste reduction and embodied carbon calculation uptake in Scotland’s construction industry. Research was commissioned in two parts to develop a baseline understanding of current practices in Scotland’s built environment, in terms of how stakeholders approach waste reduction and data capture for embodied carbon calculations.
The first part of the research undertook a qualitative review of approaches to best practice waste reduction adoption in Scotland’s construction industry. The second part of the research was a mixed-methods review of approaches to material carbon data capture for embodied carbon assessments.
This research was completed in August 2024 and since this time, Zero Waste Scotland has used its outputs to inform the design and delivery of further engagement with the built environment sector.
Key findings
- Low uptake and awareness of published best practices for waste reduction
- Best practice is commonly perceived at a conceptual level
- A lack of incentive to reduce waste in Scotland’s construction industry.
- The majority of stakeholders take a RICS-based (Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors) approach to whole life cycle carbon assessments
- A lack of available and suitable data for these assessments, particularly at the early stage of projects, with more accurate data being used at the latter end of projects
- Stakeholders perceived the value of these assessments but suggested their limited application in early stages of projects meant that there was minimal potential for change.
Key recommendations
- A need to consider the incentive structures (e.g. fiscal incentives in Scotland’s construction industry and their suitability for driving change)
- There is need to align approaches to data collection for both waste reduction and carbon assessment, to better understand areas of opportunity and to target investment
- Improved communication between stakeholders to enable early engagement with the supply chain in a project
- Respecting the differences in capacity, capability and access to resources among stakeholders to ensure that best practice is applicable across industry and supports Scotland’s just transition principles
- Better understanding of the quantum of waste across the industry to define focus areas for industry-wide initiatives; and
- Opportunity to investigate and learn from other regions where waste reduction and embodied carbon assessment approaches have been trialled and implemented.
