Panel Perspectives: HONEXT | 47
Above: HONEXT painted and digitally printed as information panels for the exhibition More Than Bees PHOTO: PABLOSANTOS
However, Arup commented that there are
many core conditions that need to be in place globally for a truly circular system in the built environment, and some are key to achieve the net zero transition. One of them is to increase the supply of and access to “circular materials”, defined as “pre-used, low or/zero- carbon and carbon negative, recyclable, or recycled”, on a global scale. And even in this category, “re-using and
recovering materials should always be the priority, in order to minimise waste and overall demand for new material”.
THE EU TAXONOMY We are now seeing a rapidly changing context for companies’ operations, and for investors with changing legislation and policies to combat and mitigate negative climate change: The EU Taxonomy, in effect since July 2020, is a classification system establishing a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities. It could play an important role and help
the EU scale up sustainable investment and implement the European Green Deal. The EU Taxonomy will provide companies, investors and policymakers with appropriate definitions for which economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable. In this way, it should create security
for investors, protect private investors from greenwashing, help companies to become more climate-friendly, mitigate market fragmentation and help shift investments where they are most needed. The “Transition to a circular economy” is one
of the six environmental objectives. Additionally in 2022, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) convened leaders from across the value chain to formulate a detailed plan for how EU policymakers and the built environment sector can work together to fully decarbonise buildings and construction by 2050.
In the project #BuildingLife, 10 European Green Building Councils are convening to deliver the European Green Deal. Both the UK and Spain are in the group spearheading this project, where “Waste and circularity” and “Sustainable finance” are two of four areas.
BARCELONA AND BEYOND As was reported previously (WBPI October/ November 2021) and with all these dynamics in mind, HONEXT continues to develop and expand into an extremely interesting proposition.
In Barcelona, after more than 10 years research at UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (
https://www.upc.edu/en), HONEXT emerged as a spin-off company bringing with it a revolutionary fibre waste reclaiming process that turns cellulose residue from the pulp and paper industry into a fully recyclable, construction-ready material, manufactured and designed for additional processing, for most applications. By analysing sorting and classifying
waste, based on its composition it has proved possible to achieve new standard FR products. Depending on its quality,
HONEXT uses 0-100% for both sludge and old corrugated cardboard (OCC) as well as the use of other industrial fibres as the raw material base. “We needed to close the loop on the cellulose life cycle and start seeing this type of fibre waste for what it really is: an untapped resource,” said Pere Merino, HONEXT chairman and co-founder. As a result of many lab trials and experiments over these years and by an innovative approach to develop these techniques, HONEXT has now used the technology breakthroughs to combine waste raw material, using cellulose premium sludge and OCC and particular enzymes into a fibrolised cellulose-based panel. This new construction material for interior use is certified as ‘circular by design’. Not only is the management team behind
HONEXT demonstrating how innovation and biotech can offer new, truly sustainable solutions for the built environment, but the business model is also being developed to be a modular solution, and thereby quickly scalable, to be established where the waste from the pulp and paper industry is produced.
This fulfils another crucial principle of the circular economy, highly relevant for the built environment; that material re-use should be localised as much as possible, to minimise associated transport emissions, especially in areas with a lot of construction activity.
This captures the HONEXT vision in a nutshell; to upcycle waste fibres locally,
www.wbpionline.com | April/May 2023 | WBPI
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