Light House

Three major issues threaten our collective wellbeing: increasing climate crises, a seemingly endless stream of waste generation, and a lack of affordable housing.

To address these issues, we need to integrate circular economy innovations, strategies, and thinking into our construction processes and communities.

We spoke with Gil Yaron, Managing Director of Circular Innovation at Light House, about how this organization is assisting governments and industry in advancing regenerative built environments that are healthy for people and planet.

What inspired your founders to start Light House and engage in circularity?

Light House’s mandate has always been to demonstrate leading practices that make construction more sustainable. We were founded in 2006 (we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary this year!) to introduce the concept of green building to the retail public sector.

As practices have evolved and received widespread adoption, Light House’s focus has also evolved. Today, we work with government and industry to advance regenerative design and circular practices in the built environment.

Our focus on circularity is a recognition of the amount of material resources that are used in the construction sector and the fact that roughly one-third of all municipal solid waste in Canada and 13% of all Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are associated with buildings. To address climate change, it is vital that modern construction methods employ low-carbon, resilient, energy-efficient solutions that are also regenerative and support a circular economy, reducing the use of virgin materials and preserving the value of existing resources.

Implementing circular strategies is a critical part of addressing three major crises: affordable housing, waste, and climate.

How do you feel that implementing circular solutions will benefit the built environment, communities, and Canada?

With the rising cost of materials, pressures on our landfills, and close to 40% of global GHG emissions associated with the construction, operation, and disposal of buildings, implementing circular strategies is a critical part of addressing three major crises: affordable housing, waste, and climate.

By reducing the overall use of virgin materials in construction and introducing more low-carbon materials, we can reduce the embodied carbon and associated GHG emissions in construction. Applying principles like design for deconstruction and adaptive reuse can help us preserve building materials and extend their useful life. Deconstructing homes rather than demolishing them can also preserve building materials and generate new economic activity associated with new processing industries and retail channels while preserving embodied carbon and reducing carbon emissions and waste.

What do you consider to be your biggest success in advancing the circular economy in the built environment? Can you share any stories of impact your work has had that have surprised you?

Light House has had many successes over its 20-year history. In the context of circularity, I think our biggest success is leading or supporting a wide range of projects demonstrating the full scope of circular practices in the built environment.

Over the years, we have conducted material assessments for communities across Canada to better understand the amount of construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) materials generated and opportunities for diversion and reuse. We also conducted the largest study in Canada, Watching Our Waste, benchmarking waste generated from more than 600 LEED-certified projects in Canada.

Recently, we conducted our Construction Plastics Initiative pilot study, the first study of its kind in North America, demonstrating the potential of a circular model for managing plastic waste generated in construction. While the study involved only eight construction projects over one year, we were surprised that it generated 38,000 kg of plastic, illustrating that the construction sector is one of the largest generators of single-use plastics.

We also released a major paper exploring home relocation in seven cities as a circular and affordable housing strategy. In that case, we have been surprised at the degree of interest from local governments across Canada and the momentum that has developed around this strategy over just the past few years.

What are some of the challenges you typically face working to advance the circular economy, especially within the built environment?

There are a number of significant challenges to advancing circularity in the built environment. One is a lack of infrastructure to store and process building materials for reuse. We need all levels of government to support industry in building capacity to manage these resources, similar to how they support other conventional industries.

We also need favourable policies that incentivize the diversion of building materials from the landfill and the use of reclaimed materials in new construction. Examples include the City of Victoria’s deconstruction bylaw that requires contractors to pay a $19,500 refundable deposit that is returned once the contractor has demonstrated diversion of a prescribed amount of wood. Similarly, Cook County in the US requires 5% of all materials used in a project be diverted for reuse.

Are there any upcoming initiatives, projects, trends, or advancements related to your work you'd like to share?

Light House continues to explore a range of initiatives that demonstrate the potential benefits of circular construction practices at scale. One exciting initiative is a partnership with Ecowaste, BC’s largest private landfill dedicated to CRD materials, located in Richmond, BC. We are working together to establish a Circular Construction Campus where companies will co-locate on the landfill site and use materials sourced from what is received at the landfill in manufacturing new products.

As part of the Campus, we’ll also be establishing a Centre for Training and Excellence, offering training in various disciplines related to circular construction practices, and a living lab where industry representatives can come to see the circular economy in action.

We’re also very excited about our accelerator—Bluprint—that supports founders and entrepreneurs across Canada looking to grow and scale their cleantech, hardtech, and proptech enterprises, supporting sustainable construction and property management.

Looking ahead, what are your hopes for the circular economy over the next decade, and how do you envision contributing to this vision? How can other individuals and organizations help support your mission and/or advance circularity in the built environment?

Our hope at Light House is to go beyond recycling building products and develop a truly circular model that relies less on virgin materials and integrates the use of reclaimed materials in new construction, preserving the economic value of building materials through reuse while restoring nature.

Transitioning to a circular economy involves systems change away from our current linear economic model. This type of work can’t be done alone. It requires the participation of all sectors through partnerships that consider new ways of doing things.

We encourage all companies engaged in construction, renovation, and demolition to explore how they can implement circular approaches in their operations, and welcome the opportunity to partner with all levels of government and industry to advance circular solutions.