Insights / Research Notebook

The Research Notebook

Early research, work in progress, interesting discoveries and open questions, shared as we go and labelled by how far along each one is.

Publish. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Finished articles are only part of the work. The Notebook shows the rest: what we are reading, what we have found so far, what we are unsure about and what we want to look at next. We would rather publish early and say plainly what is incomplete than wait until everything is perfect.

Every entry carries one of four labels. Nothing here is advice, and anything marked as preliminary may change.

Published research

Articles

Product research profiles

Part of Homes & Materials. Each profile separates how established a product is from how well its claims are independently verified.

  • Durra Panel: established technology, partly verified.
  • BIAX Foundations: emerging commercial solution, partly verified.
  • HempBLOCK: emerging commercial solution, partly verified. The CodeMark certificate we found is shown as historical, and its current status is unconfirmed.

Research in progress

Work we have started but not finished. Each item lists what is still missing.

Waste-derived building materials

The published article and resource list are a starting point. Still to do:

  • Read the remaining primary sources directly, including product data sheets and test reports for recycled-content products such as saveBOARD.
  • Find test and certification evidence for each waste-derived product (fire, moisture, durability, relevant Australian standards and the National Construction Code pathway).
  • Look for environmental product declarations or life cycle assessments, and check their system boundaries.
  • Find installed costs and regional availability.
  • Confirm the current operating status and actual output of the Shoalhaven ceramics facility, where sources disagree on timing.
  • Review international examples (the Netherlands, Belgium, and deconstruction and reuse businesses elsewhere) for operating status, scale, evidence of outcomes and whether they transfer to Australia.

Product research profiles

  • HempBLOCK: whether the CodeMark certificate has been renewed or replaced, the test reports it cites, where the blocks are made, and how the certificate holder relates to the other HempBLOCK businesses.
  • BIAX Foundations: third-party test reports or a product certificate, and the date the product entered the Australian market.
  • Durra Panel: fire, acoustic and structural test reports, and a current price. The only price we have is dated 2021 and supplied by the company.
  • All three: photographs and illustrations are not yet cleared for use, so the profiles use placeholders.

Source checks

External links in the product profiles have not yet all been re-checked on a normal connection.

Preliminary findings

Early observations. They come from work already described on this site, and they may change as we read more.

  • Independent verification is thin for newer building products. For each of the three profiled products we found one independent element (an environmental product declaration for BIAX and Durra, a CodeMark certificate for HempBLOCK). Most performance and cost statements come from manufacturers, partners or trade press.
  • Manufacturer figures can differ from independent documents. For Durra Panel, some manufacturer statements differ from the product’s environmental product declaration. We show both rather than choose one.
  • A certificate is a snapshot. HempBLOCK’s CodeMark certificate states an expiry that has passed. That does not by itself mean the product is non-compliant. It means the current position needs confirming.
  • Circularity comparisons need care. The Australian figure we cite (the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 4.3% in 2024) and the Dutch figure (Eurostat, 32.7%) may not be measured the same way. We have not yet checked the accounting boundaries, so treat the gap as indicative only.
  • Where reuse could matter most may be coordination. Our working hypothesis is that some opportunities lie in salvage, sorting, testing and documentation services as much as in new factories. This is a hypothesis, not established demand.

Observations and lessons learned

  • How established a technology is and how good the evidence is are separate questions, so the profiles label them separately.
  • Linking to a source is not endorsement. Each claim carries a source class so readers can judge its weight.
  • Some checks cannot be finished from a desk. Where we could not read a primary document, we say so and record it as outstanding.

Ideas for future investigation

These are ideas and questions, not articles. Nothing in this list has been written, and we may change or drop any of it.

Buildings and materials

  • Beyond polystyrene: rethinking residential foundations.
  • BIAX, CUPOLEX and CLEVA POD compared on the same terms.
  • Building with agricultural waste: the Durra Panel story.
  • Hemp construction: where could it fit in Australia’s building industry?
  • Understanding low-carbon concrete.
  • Designing buildings for a circular economy.
  • Understanding environmental product declarations.

Reuse and the circular economy

  • Reuse and deconstruction in the Netherlands and Belgium: what exists, and what is backed by evidence.
  • Producer responsibility and take-back schemes for building products.
  • Government support for manufacturers who use recovered inputs.
  • Five possible market gaps in reuse: salvage before demolition, sorting and preparation, regional production from local waste, testing and sourcing services, and repair and take-back.
  • Other projects worth reading about: Superuse Studios’ “Harvest, Collect, Re-use” publication and Precious Plastic. We have not yet reviewed either.

Energy and storage

  • Batteries and stationary storage, keeping observed cost and deployment separate from manufacturer specifications and forecasts.
  • How Australian home energy ratings work: NatHERS star ratings, the Whole of Home score and Queensland’s requirements. Some early notes exist and need re-checking before use.

Formats

  • Short, checked video demonstrations of building and recycling processes. None has been reviewed yet.
  • A simple resources index and evidence-status labels across more of the site.

How the Notebook works

Entries move along: an idea becomes research in progress, then preliminary findings, then a published article or profile. Corrections are made promptly and dated. Our editorial standards apply to everything published as research, and the evidence labels explain how we describe maturity and verification.