Material Index (MI) is a UK-based construction-technology company enabling circularity and improving productivity in the construction industry through digital innovation. The UK's construction industry generates over 60% of UK waste, making it the country's most wasteful industry by volume. Construction materials contribute over 14% of total GHG emissions, with the embodied carbon of replacement materials representing a significant barrier to achieving net-zero targets. Current recycling practices are inefficient, with materials often sorted into suboptimal streams due to poor information available at the critical pre-demolition phase, and poor reporting and traceability. To address this challenge, MI is developing automated recycling stream classification and optimisation as part of its proven digital audit platform. These enhanced recycling capabilities will help construction and manufacturing companies meet increasingly stricter environmental regulations and net zero targets, improve reporting accuracy, and reduce waste processing costs. This project directly supports the UK government's circular economy objectives and net-zero commitments while positioning the UK as a leader in construction technology innovation. The automated systems and capabilities for enabling and recording high value material recycling represent significant intellectual property value and commercial potential, with applications extending beyond the UK market, to support the global circular economy transition.

Material Index (MI) is a UK-based construction-technology SME committed to enabling circularity and improving productivity in the construction industry through digital innovation. The core project team is Ellis Dodwell (software engineer), Rob Smith (mechanical engineer) and Morgan Lewis (architect). The UK's construction industry lacks circularity. It reuses less than 2% of materials and is the UK's most wasteful industry by volume, with the embodied carbon of replacement materials accounting for over a tenth of GHG emissions. Digitisation, especially through AI-enabled automation of repetitive tasks, is essential for providing contractors/developers with information-rich data on which components can be profitably resold. To meet net-zero targets, contractors/developers urgently need pre-demolition information about residual values of components and pathways for reclamation to create secondary supplies for reuse. To this end, MI is developing innovative AI-powered mobile-centric capability for its digital tool, to automatically categorise components filmed in-situ, accelerating MI's audits and boosting productivity. MI's AI-enabled surveying tool will help companies embed circularity, meet net-zero commitments, demonstrate regulatory compliance, and contribute to the UK government's 2030/50 carbon commitments. This project could have huge productivity gains and many additional use-cases (IP value), enabling the transition to a circular, digitised and more ecologically-sustainable construction industry.

The UK's construction industry lacks circularity. Despite being the UK's most wasteful industry by volume, construction product and material reuse rates are below 2%. The embodied carbon in producing replacement products through deconstruction accounts for over a tenth of GHG emissions. To meet net-zero targets, product manufacturers, UK real estate owners, construction professionals and demolition contractors need an industry where construction products can be reused at scale, which will involve the growth of OEM take-back schemes as well as site-to-site exchange of building components. Material Index (MI) is a UK-based construction technology SME specialised in enabling the reuse of construction products. It's digital platform allows built environment contractors and professionals to carry out inventories of construction products within real estate assets (pre-demolition audits) connected to a B2B marketplace function connected to OEM manufacturers and professional resellers. MI enables real estate developers and product manufacturers to trace and reuse materials within buildings, allowing them to calculate and reduce embodied carbon. MI's mission is to drive down carbon emissions by enabling the UK construction industry across the supply and value chain, to transition to circular practices. Working in collaboration with General Demolition (GD), a large responsibly-minded demolition and deconstruction contractor, and Design Researcher and Strategist Milly Derbyshire (MD), MI will undertake an intensive user-focussed design research project which will use findings from a rigorous testing environment with features of a living laboratory to best adapt their product to users' requirements. The project will enable MI's product to meet market needs and move the UK towards a zero future at a crucial juncture.