“Demolition gets bashed for all sorts of reasons. It’s loud, it’s dusty, it’s noisy.” So says Ben Griffiths, operations director at demolition contractor Rye. “The perception that demolition is unsustainable is just the next thing that we’re going to get bashed with – and I think there is a good argument to counter it.”

Few in the built environment are defending demolition at the moment. As the industry searches for ways to reduce its carbon emissions – 40% of the UK’s total – the consensus among climate experts has been that knocking down a building and starting again from scratch is just about the least sustainable approach to construction possible. But some are now launching a fight back.

Rye is among a group of demolition contractors which are making concerted efforts to become greener. Measures include switching to less carbon intensive fuels for on-site machinery and finding new ways to reuse materials from demolished buildings.

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