CO₂ reduction
Calculate, for each project, its CO₂ emissions and the emissions you avoid by reusing materials. Reusemate automatically turns your inventory into clear impact figures.
The EU aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and to double its circular material use rate. These goals are now turning into rules and commitments for clients and contractors across Europe. Almost every one of them asks for the same thing: well-founded figures.
Under the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the life-cycle carbon of new buildings must be calculated and disclosed: from 2028 for large buildings, from 2030 for all. Reused products can lower that figure considerably.
For construction and renovation to count as sustainable, at least 70% of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste must be prepared for reuse, recycling or other material recovery.
Large companies must report on climate and circularity. Clients pass these requests for figures on to their supply chain.
The EU framework for sustainable buildings, with common indicators for life-cycle carbon, construction and demolition waste, and design for disassembly.
Countries such as Denmark, France and the Netherlands already cap the embodied carbon of new buildings. In the Dutch MPG calculation, for example, reused products score well because their production phase has already been accounted for.
Almost all the emissions of a building product come from its production and its waste processing. A product that comes out of a building intact and is used again avoids CO₂ emissions in both life-cycle stages. Recycling only does so in part. Below is the CO₂ reduction of reused products compared with a new equivalent, based on Dutch environmental data.
98%less CO₂
PIR roof insulation boards removed from the roof intact
97%less CO₂
Structural steel sections HEA and IPE beams
94%less CO₂
Flat glass glazing from facades and shopfronts
76%less CO₂
Brick facing bricks and interior walls
The higher up the ladder, the more CO₂ emissions you avoid. Reusemate calculates where your project lands for each product group.
Methodology
The calculation and the environmental data behind Reusemate were developed with the help of the consultancy Dispersed, so your figures are based on a reproducible methodology. It follows the assessment method of the Dutch National Environmental Database (NMD). Here is how it works, in brief.
Step 1
By far the most comes from production (A1-3) and from waste processing at the end (C3-4). Transport, construction and use in between amount to little.
Step 2
The product already exists, so the entire production stage drops out. Only dismantling, transport and installation still count.
Step 3
The waste processing of the donor product no longer takes place, which offsets the waste processing at the end of the reused product's life.
Reuse therefore avoids the CO₂ emissions of both production and waste processing. That is a large reduction you can subtract from your project's emissions.
The calculation method and the environmental dataset Reusemate uses were developed together with Dispersed. For each material group, they determined the emissions from production and from landfill, incineration, recycling and reuse at the end of life. Read more in the essay below.
Read the full essay (in Dutch)Book a 45-minute demo and we'll run the numbers on one of your projects together.
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