Imagine a world where everything can be used and reused. Where we value everything and waste nothing. That’s the thinking behind circular economy. With British Land leading on sustainability, here's what circularity looks like in practice at Exchange House, Broadgate.
London’s iconic Exchange House, where we recently transformed the reception and levels 9 and 10.
Ancient techniques with a modern twist
"Thousands of people walk on this eco flooring every week. It’s something you can see, touch and feel."
Exchange House is an amazing example of circular economy in action. We took the existing, late-1980s floor tiles, which looked very much of their time, and upcycled them to create modern eco flooring, extending their life for decades to come.
Working with experts, we first recovered all the original marble from the reception area which covered 550 sqm, an area the size of two tennis courts. A local stone specialist then used ancient terrazzo techniques, cutting and hand-laying tiny tiles into cement, to produce authentic new floors, walls and washroom units.
The best thing is how visible this all is. So much of what we’re doing to achieve net zero across our portfolio is hidden from sight, such as air source heat pumps on rooftops and low-carbon steel encased in other materials. Thousands of people walk on this eco flooring every week. It’s something you can see, touch and feel.
Spot the difference
"We challenge anyone to spot the difference versus brand-new flooring!"
Sadly (and shockingly), the norm on Cat A fit-outs across the UK is to rip out all raised access flooring and buy new – even though many of the panels have years more life in them. From our whole life carbon assessments, we know this tends to be one of the biggest source of carbon in fit-outs.
So, we do things differently. Where existing panels are in a suitable condition, we refurbish and reuse them. Where not, we look to source quality used materials that are rigorously tested, refurbished and warrantied by the supplier.
At Exchange House, we installed 6,000 sqm of reused tiles across levels 9 and 10. This saved 170 tonnes of carbon – as much as 7,600 trees absorb in a year. Learning from this project, we’ve already fitted 16,700 sqm of reused raised access flooring at Canada Water, with more in the pipeline. We challenge anyone to spot the difference versus brand-new flooring!
Power of partnership
Exchange House was also the first of many projects where we partnered with Globechain. Together with our refurb partners, we donated 5,889 quality strip-out items worth £400,000 to London charities for reuse, including lights, kitchen units, carpets, blinds, doors and telecoms equipment.
This benefited up to 3,154 people by improving spaces and facilities they use, including a community school and library in south-east London, an arts centre in north London and an east London charity that supports survivors of abuse.
Our partnership was recognised by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development who chose our partnership as an exemplar case study – creating greater social and environmental value than conventional recycling.
Taking carbon as low as it can go
All this circularity contributed to the Exchange House refurb’s low embodied footprint of 167kg of CO2e per sqm. Embodied carbon in fitouts is not typically measured but undertaking carbon assessments is something we are instructing on our fitouts in order to establish benchmarks and determine carbon saving opportunities.
We’re not stopping here; we aim to work with all our customers to inform decisions when altering internal spaces. We’d like to share the embodied carbon assessments Storey, our flexible workspace offer, is completing for fit-outs, moving the industry forwards.
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