Adding Circular Commitments to Your RFPs and Contracts
To ensure that designers, builders and collaborating artists contribute to your goals of creating low-waste, low-carbon exhibitions/staged environments, you may include specific language in their contracts that outlines expectations, responsibilities, and outcomes.
You may also consider using this content as a reminder to your team of key commitments you want to pursue for each project, and you may choose to use some or all of this content in the evaluation of contractor’s proposals, using it to ‘score’ different vendors’ proposals based on their level of circular commitment by section.
These commitments (or commitments from your Project Pledge) may also be helpful content to include when applying for grants or for award submissions pre- and post-project.
Here is suggested contract language. You may choose to use all of some of the following:
Circularity and Low-Carbon Commitment
The designer/builder agrees to prioritize environmentally circular design and construction practices throughout the project, with the goal of minimizing waste and the carbon footprint of materials used. This includes:
- Reusing material from existing inventory at [name of organization(s)].
- Prioritizing and sourcing used materials and/or new materials with environmental certifications.
- Minimizing the use of materials with high global warming potential (GWP).
Waste Reduction and Material Reuse
The designer/builder shall implement practices to minimize waste during the construction and deconstruction phases of the exhibition. This includes:
- Designing/building in a way that maximizes the potential for reuse of materials and avoids excessive offcuts.
- Avoiding disposable or single-use materials where alternatives exist.
- For those materials that cannot be disassembled for reuse, prioritize diversion for recycling over waste-to-landfill.
Design for Durability and Modularity
The designer will prioritize the creation of modular systems and design-for-disassembly to allow components to be reused in future exhibitions or adapted to different configurations.
Most exhibition elements should be designed for durability, with a focus on long-term use and the ability to be maintained, repaired, or repurposed.
Minimizing Waste in Unbuilding
The builder must establish and implement a circularity plan that includes:
- Building and unbuilding (disassembly) methods and joinery that optimizes potential for materials reuse.
- Making best efforts to recirculate materials for reuse with the arts sector or otherwise.
- Diverting materials for recycling, when reuse is not an option.
Reporting and Accountability
The designer/builder will provide progress reports outlining how circularity goals are being met during the design and construction phases.
The designer/builder will submit a final circularity report at the completion of the project, listing the measures taken to reduce and avoid waste. They may also submit suggestions for further improvement in future projects.
Incentives
Meeting or exceeding client expectations for the above circular design/building initiatives may result in performance-based incentives [indicate what]
Contractors’ successful practices will be acknowledged and shared with the sector via social media, meetings, and conferences.
The above contract language ensures that designers and builders are accountable for their role in contributing to integration of circularity into exhibition/theatre set development. Modify this language based on the specific goals and challenges of your projects.
Disclaimer: Any concerns about legality of any of the above language, we recommend you consult your lawyer, or omit that content.