Model Action Plan – Designers and Consultants
This action plan shows how you and your organisation can make and deliver a commitment to reducing waste to landfill. The
design team needs to think about waste early in the design process. This is not only a sustainability issue, but also one of cost.
Thinking about waste during design, and embedding it into the procurement process are simple ways to make big differences.
1
Securing
corporate
commitment
Further information
Assemble the business case
Secure buy-in
Set out your delivery plan
- Reporting by design teams
- Design team checklist for managing
projects
- Data reporting – guidance for project
teams (for information only)
2
Delivering
on your
commitment
2.1 - Create design solutions that minimise waste and use resources efficiently
2.2 - Identify opportunities to reduce waste and use more recovered material
2.3 - Support your teams in broadening their knowledge of resource-efficient
design
2.4 - Measure performance at a project level
2.5 - Report annually on corporate performance
Action plans are also available for other levels of the supply chain (client, contractor, supplier and waste management contractor) at
http://www.wrap.org.uk/construction/tools_and_guidance/index.html
Stage 1: Securing corporate commitment
Where are you
now?
Assemble a Board-level case for commitment:

Identify which members of your peer group have waste targets and have signed up. Identify
commitments made by your major clients and their principal contractors.

Assess what contribution a successful commitment could make to your reputation, PR profile
and positioning on corporate responsibility.

Estimate what contribution waste reduction could make to value engineering on your project
designs.
(See WRAP resources: cost-benefit case studies; design exemplars; information on other signatories; Net
Waste Tool for analysing cost savings on sample projects; advice on sector benchmarks)
Present the business case to senior management to secure buy-in. This should focus on your ability to
help deliver clients’ and contractors’ sustainability and cost reduction objectives, plus your commitment
to environmental issues.
(See WRAP resources: video, sign-up pack, presentation materials)
Set out your action plan for making it happen (using Stage 2 below) – define key tasks and who you
need to involve within your own organisation and key client and contractor organisations, including:

creating low-waste design solutions;

asking supply chains to deliver these solutions (by cascading procurement requirements);

building the skills base and analytical tools to identify the best opportunities for waste
reduction;

ensuring continuing professional development; and

defining how to measure and report performance.
Obtain buy-in from colleagues who are necessary for effective implementation:

Senior Partners; and

project team leaders.
Your next steps?
Stage 2: Making it happen
2.1 Create design solutions that minimise waste and use resources efficiently
Where are you now?
Embed waste reduction within your design creation and review process
(see WRAP’s guidance on Designing out waste)
Consider the following opportunities in design:
1. Reuse of materials and components, including

maximising reuse and refurbishment of existing infrastructure;

minimising demolition and excavation waste through reuse on site, in-situ remediation, cut
and fill balance etc;

using products with higher levels of recycled content; and

reuse of reclaimed and reprocessed materials & components from on or off site.
2. Modern Methods of Construction, including:

off-site manufacture and site assembly.
3. Materials optimisation, including

simplified design;

standardising dimensions and materials; and

design coordination, avoiding excess cutting, no late design changes, etc.
4. Efficient procurement & delivery systems, including:

logistics systems;

liaison with the supply chain; and

negotiation of wastage allowances.
Your next steps?
5. Design for deconstruction, including:

flexible design allowing adaptable use over the building life span;

using reusable/recyclable materials and components; and

designing for easy disassembly.
(See WRAP’s guidance on Designing out waste and Checklists of design solutions)
2.2 Identify for clients and contractors the best opportunities to reduce waste and use more recovered material
Where are you now?
Where instructed by your client, ensure all relevant documents for project procurement set clear
requirements for performance on waste reduction and recovery:

for example, at the Pre-construction and Construction stages (RIBA Stages F to K), insert
clauses in prequalification questions and invitations to tender for contractors; and

ensure performance requirements are accompanied by clear data measurement and reporting
requirements.
(See WRAP resources: Procurement requirements for reducing waste to landfill )
Forecast the waste expected on each project:

quantify the potential to reduce waste and recover/reuse materials; and

identify and evaluate the top opportunities to save on materials costs and waste disposal
costs.
Record the selected waste reduction actions within the Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP),
including:

quantification of resulting impact on waste.
Where feasible, record waste recovery plans within the SWMP at the design stage:

actions resulting from a pre-demolition audit; and

forecast of waste streams and corresponding segregation actions.
Your next steps?
Use WRAP’s Net Waste Tool to quantify and prioritise waste reduction opportunities, to plan for waste
recovery, and to identify recycled content Quick Wins.
2.3 Support your teams in broadening their knowledge of resource-efficient design
Where are you now?
Your next steps?
Where are you now?
Your next steps?
Ensure that project teams are aware of and fulfil all legal duties (SWMP legislation currently applies in
England only).
Embed ‘resource efficiency’ in your organisation’s Continuing Professional Development, including:

training on available tools and guidance; and

providing resources in-house, e.g. on an Intranet site.
Share examples of Best Practice across the organisation.
2.4 Measure performance at a project level
Establish responsibilities and internal procedures for assessing waste reduction opportunities (Design
Stage sign-off reviews).
Establish a clear methodology for evaluating the waste reduction potential, selecting options and
subsequently tracking implementation of the design changes:

use the Net Waste Tool to identify areas of opportunity;

quantify the wastage (in tonnes);

quantify waste from revised design solutions; and

report the difference.
Ensure the SWMP includes clear waste forecasts (provided to contractor by design team).
Ensure CD&E wastage data are provided by the contractor for comparison against design stage
forecasts (total quantity and amount recycled), and check for compliance with the agreed industry
approach to waste data reporting (see later).
Ensure the data are compared against forecast and used to drive improvements (e.g. in project review
meetings).
2.5 Report annually on corporate performance
Where are you now?
Agree level of reporting appropriate for your organisation (possibly set a minimum threshold for project
value?)
Establish responsibilities and internal procedures for collating data from projects to provide corporate
reporting – agreeing this with the project teams.

For example, decide whether to use WRAP’s Net Waste Tool to quantify waste reduction and
improvement in reused and recycled content.
Upload project totals at WRAP’s web-based ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’.
Include your corporate performance in your annual reporting on Corporate Responsibility.
Your next steps?
Reporting by design teams
Identifying and quantifying opportunities
Design teams need to pursue waste reduction systematically.
WRAP’s Net Waste Tool makes this process much easier. The tool
applies typical industry wastage rates to the cost plan material
quantities, generating an estimate of the wastes expected on the
project at baseline and good practice. It then provides an
assessment of which materials and specifications offer the greatest
potential to reduce waste. Designers can use this information to
begin to review the design, focusing on those materials. Actions
may be taken to reduce wastage rates and/or change the design
specification.
Design teams should therefore adopt this simple, 4 step approach:
may need to identify material densities, or additional material
dimensions (for conversion to a volumetric figure first). The
difference in wastage between these two options should be
reported. The objective should be to generate a summary table
similar to that below, from which the design team can add up the
total reduction in waste due to design changes. Project totals can
then be reported into the ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’. The
important metric is the ‘Reduction’ figure, recording the estimated
reduction in the forecast mass of waste that is attributable to design
decisions.
The Net Waste Tool can be used to quantify the potential saving
through actions to reduce wastage rates.
Material
Identify high wastage areas
Design A
Design
A waste
(t)
Design B
Design Reduction
B waste
(t)
(t)
Identify design solutions
Quantify these solutions
Evaluate
Implement or reject
Report
outcomes
Quantifying waste
Wastage rates (available from WRAP) are applied to material
quantities for alternative design solutions. Quantities are normalised
back to a common metric of tonnes. To do this the design team
Plasterboard Cellular
5t
design using
traditional
stud
partitioning
Change to
0t
more open plan
design with
modular
partitioning
5t
Who reports what?
Quantifying the waste reduction will probably require a team effort,
but a single organisation should lead the process on each project.
Reporting this data can also be done by any member of the design
team. Each organisation should have a clear policy on recording
waste reduction outcomes at the project level, and they should
report back according to their own policy at given intervals. This
may be on every project, or only on projects of a minimum value.
This is at the discretion of the organisation.
Remember – WRAP will not be adding together all of the reduction
data reported by clients, designers and contractors, so double
counting of projects is not a problem. The focus is upon
organisations raising the profile of waste at the project level, and
ensuring this is rigorously quantified.
Design team checklist for managing projects
Checklist/notes
Brief the client, the rest of the design team and the contractor on your corporate commitment.
Set project requirements for measurement, good practice and reporting at Pre-construction and Construction
stages (RIBA Stages F to K), using model wording from WRAP guidance ‘Procurement requirements for reducing
waste to landfill’, e.g. for prequalification questions and invitation to tender for contractor, main contract and
preliminaries.
Ensure the following are considered during design:
1. Reuse of materials and components, including

maximising reuse and refurbishment of existing infrastructure;

minimising demolition and excavation waste through reuse on site, in-situ remediation, cut and fill
balance etc;

using products with higher levels of recycled content; and

reuse of reclaimed and reprocessed materials & components from on or off site.
2. Modern Methods of Construction, including:

off-site manufacture and site assembly.
3. Materials optimisation, including

simplified design;

standardising dimensions and materials; and

design coordination, avoiding excess cutting, no late design changes, etc.
4. Efficient procurement & delivery systems, including:

logistics systems;

liaison with the supply chain; and

negotiation of wastage allowances.
5. Design for deconstruction, including:

flexible design allowing adaptable use over the building life span;

using reusable/recyclable materials and components; and

designing for easy disassembly.
(See WRAP’s guidance on Designing out waste and Checklists of design solutions)
Ensure that waste reduction opportunities are identified, and recorded within the SWMP. Quantify
these opportunities.
Before starting on site, ensure the SWMP includes:

accurate forecasts of waste (broken down by types of waste);

project targets for waste reduction and recovery during construction;

actions taken to reduce waste during design;

actions for reducing and recovering waste on site, with clear responsibilities;

estimates for costs of waste disposal;

end destinations for all waste streams, providing an estimate of the project recovery rate; and

forecasts which include demolition and excavation wastes.
At the start of the project ensure that:

sub-contractors understand and buy into the project objective to reduce waste;

there is a clear logistics strategy (e.g. based on the WRAP Materials Logistics Plan template) which
addresses:

o
delivery of materials to site;
o
storage of materials on site;
o
movement of materials around site;
o
movement of wastes to collection points; and
contractors, sub-contractors and waste management contractors understand what data they are to
supply.
When on site, ensure the contractor:

adheres to the SWMP, and updates it throughout the project;

transfer notes are up to date;

performance is assessed throughout the project and changes are made to improve performance where
required; and

data are reported to the client (by the contractor) in the format specified (tonnes) and include a
breakdown between construction, demolition and excavation wastes.
Data reporting protocol – guidance for project teams (included for information only)
The UK Contractors Group (UKCG) has formulated guidelines on waste data provision which will bring much-needed consistency
to the industry. The reporting requirements for “Halving waste to landfill” align with the UKCG reporting approach. The
intention is that the following metrics and definitions become standard practice across the industry.
Clients should ask all their design teams and contractors to apply the UKCG approach for reporting up the supply chain. Major
contractors are likely to be reporting against the guidelines as a matter of routine.
Reporting level
Data content
Periodicity of reporting
Supply chain to
project team
Apply the UKCG approach. This includes reporting construction, demolition and
excavation (C, D & E) waste streams separately.

Data may be collected monthly or as it arises,
for recording in the SWMP
Project team to
contractor
Apply the UKCG approach:

Project team should review waste data in the
SWMP regularly (e.g. monthly or quarterly)

UKCG members collate data from projects and
report quarterly to their sector body – providing
separate C, D & E totals by project type.

WRAP’s ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’ will
support reporting by contractors at different
levels of detail.
The client can ask for aggregated data (e.g. contractor total for combined C, D & E
waste across all of the client’s projects), or for separate C, D & E totals for each
project.

Annual (or on project completion if earlier)

WRAP’s ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’
enables contractors to submit information on
behalf of their clients. On acceptance, these
data automatically form part of the client’s
waste dataset.
The client can simply report the totals for waste, waste to landfill and construction
value for the whole portfolio (with total waste to landfill as the fundamental
metric).

Annual

report C, D & E waste streams separately;

optionally, classify the sector type (infrastructure, housing and other
construction); and

optionally, classify the type of waste (hazardous, non-hazardous, inert, noninert, EWC No.) and the building type (education, commercial offices etc).
This breakdown of data supports more accurate benchmarking of performance.
Contractor to client
Client reporting to
stakeholders and
WRAP
WRAP’s ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’ will provide the option to split data
between C, D & E waste streams and by project type (allowing benchmarking).
When reporting to WRAP, clients can provide data on their own performance (aggregated across their portfolio) at the same
level of detail as contractors (i.e. separating the totals for construction, demolition and excavation and by project type), or
simply provide the total outcome for construction, demolition and excavation combined. While contractor bodies and other
reporting mechanisms (e.g. SMARTWaste) may collate data quarterly, corporate reporting by clients would be annual.
The following approach has been formulated by UKCG members:
Metrics
Wastage is to be measured separately for:
Normalising data

Construction1 – offcuts, packaging, damaged materials
All data are to be normalised by construction value, which
includes:

Demolition – brick, concrete, windows, asbestos etc

plant;

Excavation – earth, soils, etc.

labour; and

materials costs.
Only those materials actually taken off site are measured as waste.
Where materials are reused onsite, the contractor has the option to
record the quantities of material reused. However, this is not
included within metrics for waste arisings or waste to landfill
(although greater onsite reuse will reduce the waste generated per
unit of construction output).
Progress is to be measured using the following metrics:

tonnes of waste; and

tonnes of waste to landfill.
1
Clients should decide what constitutes ‘construction’ for their own organisation.
WRAP recommends that construction includes repairs and maintenance operations,
but excludes day-to-day facilities management.
The value should exclude:

land costs, professional fees and preliminaries; and

specialist fit-out items (e.g. for healthcare or retail applications).
Collecting data from projects
Collating and reporting data
Each project should supply the following data as a minimum:
Each contractor should collate separate totals for C, D & E waste.
Optionally, data may be split by infrastructure, housing and
commercial (non-residential) projects. Alternatively contractors may
report in more detail by assigning wastes to the following types of
project:
Project name
Construction
value

civil engineering;

commercial retail;

commercial offices;

Excavation
commercial other;

educational;
Construction

healthcare;
Demolition

industrial buildings;
Excavation

leisure;

public buildings;

residential; and

mixed-use developments.
Construction spend for period
Total tonnes2 of
waste
Total tonnes to
landfill
Construction
Demolition
These data can be collated on completion of a project, or for larger
projects and programmes of work, can be collated on a monthly /
quarterly basis. If data are collected during the project, then the
‘Construction spend for period’ line should be used. This allows data
to be normalised to the spend within that period.
2
Agreed factors will be used to convert waste volumes to tonnage.
Measuring and reporting the use of recovered material
Construction clients are increasingly setting minimum requirements
for reused and recycled content (e.g. 10% RC as a proportion of
materials value on the project). Reusing and procuring higher levels
of recovered material creates a demand for materials that project
teams want to recycle, and makes an important contribution to the
Halving Waste to Landfill objective.
Reused and recycled content (RC) is readily measured using WRAP’s
Net Waste Tool. This quantifies the expected baseline performance
for the project, and the most significant opportunities to move
towards cost-competitive good practice (e.g. the top 10 Quick Wins
specific to this project). The project team can then focus effort on
just a few product substitutions to deliver this improvement.
Where data are available, reused and recycled content should be
reported to/by the client. The Table below shows what data should
be collected for each project:
RC by value (%)
A
Construction value (£)
B
RC by value (£) – to allow
summation across a portfolio
Amount of material reused on site
(t), if known
AxB
Reporting periods
Key Performance Indicators
The reporting portal allows flexibility in the way that data are
gathered. The options are:
The reporting portal will generate a series of KPIs, allowing your
organisation to assess its performance over time. The KPIs that will
be calculated are:

data are gathered on completion of a project and normalised to
total construction value; or

data are gathered either monthly, quarterly, or annually, and
normalised by construction spend within the period.
Whichever approach is used by a contractor, this should be
consistent across all projects. UKCG members will collate and report
data quarterly to their sector body. WRAP recommends that all
contractors adopt reporting by period, rather than on completion, as
this will enable clients to collect consistent data from across their
contractors.
Quarterly collation of data will facilitate reporting to clients who have
different annual review periods for corporate responsibility and
sustainability. WRAP recommends that clients fix their review
periods to fit with the quarterly timetable.
Waste to
landfill KPI
This is the primary KPI to include in your annual
report on Corporate Responsibility when
demonstrating your commitment to the sector goal of
halving waste to landfill.
Waste
reduction KPI
‘Tonnes of waste per £ of construction output’,
reported relative to performance in your baseline year
Waste recovery
KPI
% of waste diverted from landfill during the last year.
Your annual report should illustrate year-on-year
improvements. This is also a useful indicator when
evaluating contractor performance against
procurement requirements for minimum and target
waste recovery rates on individual projects.
Benchmarking
Data can be uploaded into the ‘Waste to landfill reporting portal’ by
project/sector type. This will be used to generate benchmarks,
against which you will be able to assess your own performance.
These benchmarks will be used to show two trends for each sector
or project type:

a reduction in total waste generated; and

an increase in the proportion of waste that is diverted away
from landfill.
‘Tonnes of waste to landfill per £ of construction
output’, reported relative to performance in your
baseline year.
Reused and
recycled
content KPI
% RC by value (averaged across all construction
output) during the last year.
Your annual report should show how performance
has changed year-on-year and compare the outcome
with your procurement requirements for reused and
recycled content.