TECHNAL wins 2026 ALFED Low-Carbon Innovation Award for pioneeting closed-loop approach.
Closing the loop on construction aluminium
TECHNAL UK and Ireland has been recognised for its circular approach to construction, keeping aluminium in use and reducing embodied carbon through lower-carbon Hydro CIRCAL® and closed-loop recycling.
TECHNAL UK and Ireland has won the ALFED Low-Carbon Innovation Award, recognising our work to advance lower-carbon, circular aluminium solutions for the UK construction sector.
The award, presented by the Aluminium Federation (ALFED), celebrates innovation that is delivering meaningful progress towards decarbonisation, circularity and more sustainable manufacturing within the aluminium industry.
TECHNAL's winning approach focuses on a key challenge for the built environment: ensuring that aluminium recovered from buildings at the end of its service life is retained at high value and used again within construction.
Rather than focusing on material specification in isolation, TECHNAL has developed a closed-loop model connecting the complete material journey, from initial specification and product design through to deconstruction, recovery and ultimately its return into new building systems.
Keeping aluminium in construction
Central to this approach is Hydro CIRCAL®, which enables TECHNAL to combine lower carbon aluminium with a circular model designed to keep materials in use for longer.
Hydro CIRCAL® 75R, supplied as standard across TECHNAL systems, contains a minimum of 75% recycled post-consumer aluminium scrap. The material delivers approximately 81% lower CO2e emissions compared with the European average for primary aluminium.
By combining this lower-carbon material with design for disassembly and greater collaboration between architects, contractors, fabricators, demolition specialists and recyclers, TECHNAL has created a pathway for aluminium from existing windows, doors and facades to be recovered and returned to the aluminium value chain.
This takes our sustainability conversation beyond the carbon impact of a product when it is first installed. Instead, TECHNAL considers the aluminium throughout its lifecycle and how it can become the raw material for the next generations of buildings.
Circularity in action
The approach is already being demonstrated on live UK construction projects, including Mercury House on Theobald's Road in London and Broadcasting Place in Leeds.
Existing aluminium windows, doors and facade elements are being carefully removed and segregated so that the aluminium can be processed and recycled without mixing recycling streams. The recovered material is then reintroduced into the alumininium value chain through remelting, supporting the production of new lower-carbon aluminium building systems.
Our aim is straightforward: keep aluminium from the construction industry within the construction industry, retaining the material at its highest possible value rather than allowing it to be downcycled or lose from the building-material loop.
TECHNAL products are also designed with circularity in mind, with products that are 95% recyclable and easy to dismantle at the end of their life.
Recognition for turning circular ambition into action
Winning the ALFED Low-Carbon Innovation Award proves independent industry recognition of TECHNAL's work to make circularity a practical part of facade, window and door specification.
ALFED's 2026 awards focused on organisations and individuals driving the UK aluminium industry forward, with the Low Carbon Innovation category specifically recognising projects, technologies and initiatives making meaningful progress towards decarbonisation, circularity and more sustainable manufacturing.
Winning the ALFED Low-Carbon Innovation Award is a fantastic recognition of the direction we are taking at TECHNAL. Lowering embodied carbon is an important part of the challenge, but we also need to think about what happens to the aluminium already installed in our buildings. Our ambition is to keep that material at its highest value, recovering aluminium from the construction industry and bringing it back into the construction industry. By working collaboratively across the supply chain, we can move circularity from an ambition to something that can be delivered on real projects. This award is an important recognition of the progress being made and the potential to take this approach even further.
The award builds on TECHNAL's wider commitment to decarbonising aluminium construction, with lower-carbon aluminium integrated into its systems with no additional uplift in cost to the market, and with circular thinking increasingly informing how products are designed, specified, recovered and recycled.
By connecting these stages, TECHNAL aims to help shift construction away from the traditional linear model of take, make and discard, towards one where aluminium remains a valuable resource across successive building lifecycles.
Start your circularity conversation
Are you looking to bring circular thinking into your next project? Speak to the TECHNAL team about circularity, aluminium recovery and how we can support your project ambitions.
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