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ASI has welcomed the nation’s first engineering-led roadmap to accelerate circular economy implementation across Australia.
Authored by Professor Ali Abbas, Circular Australia’s chief circular engineer, The Circular Economy Engineering White Paper lays out the metrics, targets, and systems needed to embed circularity into our most material-intensive sectors - starting with waste and construction.
ASI sustainability adviser Jerusha Beresford said the paper is “good news” for steel - and supports what the ASI and the Australian Steel Stewardship Forum have been pushing for.
The recommendations under Pillar 1 – Circular Design and Construction are of particular interest to steel (see pages 15-17 for details);
• OBJECTIVE: Transform design and construction practices so that new buildings and infrastructure generate minimal waste throughout their life cycle and are easily deconstructed and repurposed at end of-life. Move from linear design to circular design as the norm in the built environment.
• Outcome 1: Directly builds on CEMAG’s recommendations to embed circularity into the built environment, offering a structured implementation pathway for standard-setting, materials tracking, and modular design. This paper deepens that vision with applied engineering tools such as digital material passports and disassembly-ready designs.
This follows the Green Building Council’s release of its Responsible Products Framework (RPF) Version B consultation paper that contains an increased focus on the circularity of products.
The updated RPF to be released in 2026, will potentially include six new criteria within the Circularity category including measuring a products circularity, designing products to use less materials, designing for end-of-use product pathways (e.g reuse, disassembly, modularity), reduction in packaging, use of product stewardship programmes, and availability of product information via digital product passports and product identifiers.
ASI’s Sustainability Scheme Manager, Melinda Coles is highly supportive of the new criteria “the focus on circularity is what we’ve been advocating for to showcase steels advantage in the market – with its 100% recyclability and enduring life span, steel is a leading product when it comes to advancing circular outcomes in the built environment”.
Steel Sustainability Australia will be updated to align with these best practice sustainability principles, once the final RPF Version B is released.
For more details see:
Circular Australia - The Circular Economy Engineering White Paper
Green Building Council of Australia - Responsible Products Framework
Contact Melinda Coles, Sustainability Scheme Manager on melindac@steel.org.au or 0487 953 270.