Building better: what can Ireland’s construction sector learn from our neighbours?

CIRCULÉIRE members and team visiting Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE‑ST) on Watt Place, Glasgow, Scotland, on 10th November 2025.

Irish Manufacturing Research, in our capacity as the secretariat of CIRCULÉIRE in collaboration with Zero Waste Scotland, curated a multi-sectoral circular innovation exchange in September 2025 for our industry members which included multiple site visits to Scottish circularity pioneers.  

Whilst in Glasgow in we visited with two organisations who have been rolling their sleeves up on how best to direct cutting-edge circular innovation practices to transform the construction sector. Built Environment - Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) is Scotland's national innovation centre for construction and the built environment which is also home to the Mass Timber Centre of Excellence – a centre which exists to redesign Scotland’s approach to delivering the built environment to meet the demands of climate change and the housing crisis and also lead the neighbouring Scotland’s National Retrofit Centre.  

The background 

The construction sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for approximately 40% of global GHG emissions – about one-third from the construction phase, and the remaining two-thirds from buildings in use (WEF, 2021). Here in Ireland, we are simultaneously facing a severe shortage of housing. Recent Housing Commission estimates find underlying shortages range from 212,500 to 256,000 homes (Social Justice Ireland, 2024).  

Reducing the emissions and environmental footprint of the sector - whilst steadily meeting the scale of demand - requires innovative ways to build more sustainable, low-impact and affordable housing at scale and speed.  

At BE-ST, we spoke with Hannah Lundstrom, Impact Manager, who highlighted the significant impacts of the built environment on people and planet: the UK construction sector contributes 45% of emissions, 50% of waste, and 60% of material consumption. BE-ST seeks to transform the sector, focusing on circular economy projects, off-site manufacturing, sustainable, bio-based materials (like cross-laminate timber and hemp insultation) and retrofits. Key achievements to date include generating £1.8 billion in additional revenue and launching 386 new products, including a brick made from recycled construction waste. 

The promise of these solutions is clear. Take for instance the Nest House prototype - a sustainable, quick, and efficient timber modular housing solution – which can be fully fabricated for around £70K in under three days. The prototype is the result of a partnership with Social Bite, a charity with a mission to end homelessness, which partnered with Ecosystems Technologies to create an innovative housing solution for their Social Bite Villages. In early 2026, one such ‘Recovery Village’ will be created in Dundee Village, offering fifteen houses, a communal community hub to support people struggling with homelessness and addiction.   

The homes are net-zero carbon and built with local, sustainable materials, supporting both the environment and local economies. While still niche, this approach presents a blueprint for how we might tackle homelessness - by providing affordable housing rapidly, integrating circular innovation, local supply chains, and minimal on-site disruption. The villages also offer a holistic housing-first type solution for those facing homelessness and addiction, by creating a communal support system, including skills training and recovery services. Social Bite plans to expand with new villages in Dundee and South Lanarkshire by 2026. 

Just a couple of hundred metres away, we visited another lighthouse example of circular construction in practice - Scotland’s National Retrofit Centre. Also led by BE-ST and supported by the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund, it offers a fabric-first approach using natural, locally sourced and sustainable materials alongside modern construction methods. The Centre is poised to tackle yet another major barrier facing the sector – the shortage of skilled labour. Parallels with the challenges facing us here in Ireland are evident here too: we will needs thousands of workers to be trained with retrofitting skills to hit our 2030 targets of upgrading 500,000 houses to a B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) or better. The Centre offers apprenticeships, trainings and a learning hub to equip a new generation of workers with the necessary skills to future-fit our homes.  

Our recent trip demonstrates the value in ongoing learning and exchange with our international neighbours about novel and holistic approaches to meet the scale of the challenges ahead and IMR is poised to collaborate with key ecosystem stakeholders like Irish Green Building Council, WoodConnect, Construct Innovate and Mount Lucas Training Centre to further the deployment of circular practices in the construction sector.  

🔗 Learn More 

CIRCULÉIRE Circular Construction & Built Environment Good Practice Guide 

For great examples of CIRCULÉIRE members pioneering built environment solutions, take a look at our case study on BladeBridge and Arcology.