Article / Report

Providing residential and non-residential construction services, such as architectural, engineering, planning, real-estate, contracting, and inspection services

Construction and Real Estate Services

Producing building materials and finished and semi-finished building products for construction

Construction Materials and Products

Industries

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 One step can lead to a thousand miles, so goes the popular adage. For Kevine Kagirimpundu and her colleague Ysolde Shimwe, their passion for fashion paid off when they started a handcraft shoe company in 2013 after studying creative design at University of Rwanda’s School of Environmental Design and Architecture. Through a friendship that blossomed into a business partnership and what started as an idea, is now producing fruits. Sunday Magazine’s Joan Mbabazi talked to the duo about their handcraft shoe company which now produces 200 pairs of shoes a day. What inspired you to start this company? We had the enthusiasm, brains and capital (through our saving), but fashion is something that cannot be under looked since it is what makes people’s daily lives. We also were and still look forward to show casing quality on the International map through our high quality handmade flip-flops. But most importantly we had a burning desire to employ youth and women. How are you working towards fashion development in the country? We train a number of Rwandans to use products needed on the market and we have been conducting a number of trainings for the last few years. We have a six months training that is starting on Monday that will teach people how to make footwear so that they develop skills that would help them startup companies provided they have capital or get jobs. Skills attained will help youths focus on work and reduce on the rate of drug abuse which is mostly caused by idleness. Tell us more about your company Our company is located in Gahanga where we manufacture the shoes from but we have fashion shops located at Kigali heights and Kigali airport Duty free, we have 35employees. Our footwear prices range from Rwf20,000 to Rwf25,000 a pair but the prices can be reduced depending on the quantity ordered by the client. How do you make these shoes? Well, after cutting materials like plant leather, canvas, fabrics and liners with a machine, our team starts the production process of sewing, designing, weaving and proper finishing, until the final stage where shoes are ready for sale, we work tooth and nail to produce at least 200 pairs per day. Any challenges encountered on the way? No road is smooth; our main problem is lack of skills which we are trying our best solve through our business trainings. For the last five years, is there anything you have achieved? Through hard work, we have been able to reinvest, give employment to youths and women who have been able to cater for their households but we also attracted customers both locally and internationally through trade shows. Who do you look up to? (Kagirimpundu), My father is my role model because he owned a fashion house and influenced me to venture into fashion while Shimwe appreciates her mother who pushed her to work tirelessly even when she thought like giving up. We also appreciate the president that he makes it easy for us to import raw materials from other countries. What is that moment that shaped you in to employers? At first, we only had the theory of making shoes but unfortunately lacked the practical experience but that didn’t ruin our desire and hunger for starting a business, but after a short while, we were trained by a shoe making expert on how to make shoes. If we had given up, the company could not be in existence. What does the future hold for you? We are looking forward to promoting our brand internationally so that Rwanda is recognised for its unique fashion. We will still train Rwandans to make shoes and will be able to improve the quality of shoes continuously. We also yearn to employ more workers in order to reduce unemployment. 

Metabolic’s overarching mission is to transition the global economy to a fundamentally sustainable state.

A new economic model is necessary: one that ensures the wellbeing of all people and allows organizations to thrive without transgressing the safe boundaries of the earth’s natural systems.  And we don’t have much time. Metabolic advises governments, businesses, and NGOs on how to adapt to a fast-changing global context, while creating disruptive solutions that can dramatically shift how the economy functions. We crunch data, provide strategies and tools, build pilots, and create new ventures that develop scalable solutions to critical problems. Core to achieving our mission is the transition to an economy that is regenerative and ‘circular’ by design.

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Metabolic 

OUR MISSION IS TO ACCELERATE THE PRACTICAL AND SCALABLE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

At Circle Economy, we believe in a visionary future for our planet — one in which we do not have to compromise in order to achieve economic, social, and environmental prosperity. As an impact organisation, we connect and empower a global community to create the conditions for systemic transformation. With nature as our mentor, we work alongside businesses, cities and governments to identify opportunities to make the transition to the circular economy, and provide a powerful combination of practical and scalable solutions to turn these opportunities into reality.
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Our mission is to empower a global community of businesses, cities and governments to accelerate the transition to the circular economy through practical and scalable insights and solutions that address humanity’s greatest challenges.

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Circle Economy

The Dutch Green Building Council (DGBC) Foundation is the national social organization that is committed to making the built environment future-proof at a rapid pace. This is necessary, because climate change is moving faster than expected. We can make a difference with our broad supporters from the construction and real estate sector.

DGBC - Dutch Green Building Council

Redevco is an independent, pan-European real estate investment management company specialising in retail property. Our
Foundation aims to support amongst others initiatives that accelerate transformation across the retail real estate industry and
specifically contribute to a carbon neutral sector.

Redevco Foundation

SGS Search inspects, analyses and advises the built environment. By researching the facts and providing practical, feasible advice
and project management for the implementation. We help organisations think and act sustainably. And we share our knowledge
through training. We focus on the specialist areas of asbestos, sustainability, environment, safety, construction quality and energy.

SGS Search

This report provides a general framework for circular buildings and proposes concrete strategies and indicators for possible inclusion in BREEAM New Construction and Refurbishment &amp; Fit-Out (NC &amp; RFO). The aim of the report is twofold: to provide stakeholders from government, business and academia with a basic framework to approach circularity in buildings, and to accelerate the transition to a circular built environment by suggesting strategies and indicators for integrations into leading global standards for sustainable buildings like BREEAM. The definitions used in the framework are aligned with the Transition Agenda for circular construction in The Netherlands. The proposed strategies further build on the strategies presented in the recently published Roadmap for Circular Land Tendering as well as on a range of existing frameworks and tools. The suggested indicators are either adaptations of existing indicators in BREEAM RFO and NC, or entirely new indicators. The final list of suggested indicators was created with input from external experts.

A Framework for Circular Buildings - indicators for possible inclusion in BREEAM

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

 Flagship Product Locust beans is an African local food product, a cheap source of proteins, fat, fibre, vitamins and many more. Thinking Nutrients? Think Hiru! 

Netherlands

The Economic Institute for Construction (EIB) is a research agency for applied economic analysis. The EIB carries out research for market parties and the government, both on behalf of and on its own initiative. The EIB provides independent and scientific answers to economic and social questions about the construction and built environment.

The EIB clarifies complex issues. With research and analyzes that substantiate and reinforce (policy) decisions.

Construction companies, employee and industry organizations, supply companies, construction service providers, project developers, housing corporations, financial institutions, knowledge centers for vocational education and municipal, provincial and national governments rely on the numerical insights of the EIB.

EIB - Dutch Economic Institute for Construction

The report (1) identifies materials flows, environmental impact, and energy consumption for the building sector + layout a roadmap for 2030 to make the sector more circular and sustainable, and (2) aims to paint a first picture of the starting situation for residential and commercial construction. The focus is on three pillars: optimal material use at all stages of the construction cycle, as much use as possible of inexhaustible sources with more high-quality reuse, and the efficient use of finite sources.