As environmental concerns continue to grow, sectors of all types are looking at how they can reduce waste.

One industry which faces a massive challenge is construction, with all its consumption of resource-hungry materials and reliance on fossil fuelled machinery.

However, a new Cumbrian initiative is hoping to lay down a blueprint to encourage a more circular economy in the sector at the same time as giving a helping hand to charities and community groups.

The Rebuild Site, on Kingmoor Park, Carlisle, is set to begin operations this month (January), collecting unused building materials from construction sites.

One of the driving forces behind the project is Emma Porter, already well-known in the county as managing director of Story Contracting’s construction division, chair of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership’s construction sector panel, chair of Carlisle’s Town Deal Board and a member of the Borderlands Economic Forum.

As if Emma were not busy enough already, she has been working with director and projects manager Maisie Hunt, painter and decorator Gary Murray and circular economy expert Debbie Ward, to get the Rebuild Site off the ground.

Emma says while some of the solutions to making construction more sustainable will come via new technology - such as clean power sources for machinery or sustainable building materials - there also needs to be a shift to a more circular economy within the sector.

Contractors tend to over-order some materials for building jobs to ensure they do not run out. At the conclusion of a job these perfectly usable excess materials are often put in skips and thrown away.

While 13 per cent of building materials go straight to landfill without being used, others may be down cycled, for example into fuel for biomass.

"We can't risk breakages or a shortage of materials interrupting the programme, but it means that there's normally surplus in the industry, and there's not an easy route to get that surplus back to doing something useful,” says Emma.

The new Rebuild Site will provide a place where excess, unused materials from construction sites can be sold at a reduced price to other operators or individuals.

At the same time, products will also be donated to community projects, for example, for use in gardening, crafting and repair projects.

"So Rebuild Site is going to take that surplus from construction sites, sell it to either trades or DIY and give it to community projects,” says Emma.

"But the big thing we're doing is we're just testing out and providing proof of concept of one of those building blocks that would need to happen for a true circular economy to function in the industry. It's a fairly simple idea, but what we're trying to achieve is quite ambitious.”

Emma says they have been in conversations with major developers and construction sites in the area who are very supportive of the concept.

If things go to plan, it is anticipated the project could employ five or six people by the summer, collecting, sorting and selling the materials.

"I can see it scaling up quite quickly," says Emma.

"It's quite a labour intensive operation and the deliveries and the warehouse and the shop all need people.”

Anyone who wants to find out more about the project can go to www.rebuildsite.co.uk