We built something new to measure circularity in infrastructure. Here's why that matters.

For the past few years, a straightforward question has shaped a significant part of our work at Perspektiv:

How do you actually measure circularity on an infrastructure project?

Not estimate it. Not describe it. Not infer it from recycled content percentages. Actually, measure it, in a way that can inform decisions during design.

Through collaboration with industry partners, universities and major infrastructure clients, we've developed an interactive tool built with a series of assumptions allowing Users to calculate a MCI with readily available infrastructure design and delivery inputs.

Why existing approaches weren't enough

The Material Circularity Indicator has been a valuable framework for product-level assessment. For infrastructure, the picture is more complex.

A single project can involve dozens of material streams, evolving designs, shifting procurement and layered supply chains. Assets have multiple overlapping lifespans. And unlike a manufactured product, infrastructure can't be assessed in isolation from the systems it sits within.

Applying a product-based methodology to this kind of complexity can produce results that are difficult to defend and harder to act on, or the information required to calculate an MCI is simply not available. What project teams need is an approach that reflects how infrastructure projects work and what information is available.

The decisions that matter happen early

The most valuable sustainability choices on any project are made during design, before materials are locked in, before procurement begins, before the opportunity to influence outcomes has closed.

What that means in practice is that teams need to be able to test circularity during design, not just report on it afterward. They need to ask: What happens to our circularity outcome if we change this material? This supplier? This end-of-life approach?

Without that capability, circularity can't function as a design input. It can only describe decisions already made.

Considering circularity alongside carbon

One of the more important aspects of our methodology is how it sits alongside Life Cycle Assessment.

Carbon and circularity don't always move in the same direction. A material with high recycled content may carry greater embodied emissions. A lower-carbon option may rely more heavily on virgin inputs. These trade-offs are real, and they come up regularly in design and procurement decisions.

Our approach allows project teams to see circularity outcomes alongside carbon results, via our LCA tool, so decisions can be made with visibility of both, rather than optimising for one at the expense of the other.

Making it accessible

To extend this capability beyond our own project work, we've developed an interactive version of the methodology: the MCI Calculator.

MCI calculator - a practical starting point to test assumptions

It's designed for early-stage exploration, the point where design decisions are still live and where a change in material or approach can genuinely shift an outcome. Teams can explore how different materials, quantities and end-of-life scenarios affect an overall circularity score, and how those results compare across scenarios.

It isn't a replacement for detailed project analysis. But it does provide a practical starting point: a way to test assumptions, understand trade-offs and begin grounding circularity in something measurable before the design window closes.

What this makes possible

When circularity can be quantified, it moves from a project commitment to a project input.

Teams can shift the conversation from "we believe this is the more circular option" to "here's how these two options compare, and here's what that means alongside our carbon targets."

That's the shift we've been working toward and what the MCI Calculator is designed to support.

Explore our MCI Calculator