Only 2% of manufactured products currently undergo high-value remanufacturing—rebuilding worn parts to an “as new” condition—while the rest are recycled or discarded. This matters because manufacturing accounts for 45% of global CO₂ emissions, and remanufacturing can cut raw material use by 98% and embodied energy emissions by 99% compared to making new products. The ReMake Value Retention Centre will tackle the technical, economic, and cultural barriers that prevent high-integrity sectors like aerospace, marine, and energy from adopting remanufacturing at scale. It will develop circular design methods, inspection technologies, traceability standards, and new business models, while training a workforce from apprentices to executives. If successful, the centre could transform how high-value components are kept in service, reducing waste and emissions without sacrificing performance. In the Glasgow City Region alone, remanufacturing has the potential to grow from roughly £1 billion to £1.7 billion, creating 5,700 new jobs. The project builds on existing manufacturing infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of pounds and is co-created with industry, local government, and standards bodies to deliver a step-change toward a circular economy.
View original technical description
Manufactured products account for 45% of total global CO2 emissions, while only 7% are currently recycled and starkly only 2% go through higher-value retention processes such as remanufacturing, whereby worn or non-functioning parts are rebuilt and recovered to an ‘as new’ condition. Value retention processes have demonstrated reductions of 98% raw material, 99% embodied energy emissions and overall lower waste compared to new products. High-integrity aerospace, marine and energy sectors routinely deploy advanced materials and manufacturing processes to maximise performance of systems and components. However, through-life value retention is not prioritised and significant opportunity exists to develop new, innovative, circular-value chains, maximising the investment in resources and energy used to make current and future products. The “ReMake” Value Retention Centre (RVRC) will take a transdisciplinary, systems-level approach focussing on high-integrity sectors. It will: Address “ReMake” (remanufacture, refurbishment, repair, reformatting, reuse) technical challenges via innovation in circular design, remanufacturing and inspection. Enable increased ReMake adoption, with traceability, standards and policy. Embed culture change via an understanding of risk and uncertainty and new Remake business models. Address significant skills challenges by developing the future ReMake workforce, from apprentices to executives, across the supply chain. Leverage existing ecosystems and build new ones to accelerate commercialisation and investment in ReMake high-integrity applications. In contrast to recycling/remelting, which retains just the value of the basic material, the value retention processes embedded within RVRC aim to maximise value and re-use functionality as high up the waste hierarchy as possible (waste hierarchy: Prevention, Re-use, Recycling, Recovery, Disposal). In addition to the clear environmental benefits of materials conservation and energy efficiency, adoption of ReMake as part of a circular economy unlocks new global opportunities, business models, jobs and markets. Glasgow’s central belt has a rich heritage of engineering in high-integrity, high-value sectors combining through-supply chain industry, world-class research and innovation expertise, high quality education and training providers and a highly skilled workforce, critical for the future local, national, and global economy. Manufacturing already contributes £4.3bn of GVA and employs 52,000 people in the Glasgow City Region (GCR), with ReMake having the potential to grow from ~£1bn to £1.7bn creating 5700 new jobs. The RVRC will build on the critical mass of activity and leverage the significant manufacturing innovation investment in the Glasgow central belt. The £160M Investment Zone focuses on regional strengths in Advanced Manufacturing & Precision Engineering and Energy & Net-zero, and the £33M UKRI levelling-up Innovation Accelerator includes the £5M ReMake Glasgow project focussing on ReMake technology development. RVRC will sit within a vibrant manufacturing research and innovation ecosystem including the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) (£85M Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC), £15M Lightweight Manufacturing Centre, and £75M Digital Factory), £37M UoStrathclyde Sensor Enabled Automation Robotics & Control Hub, £20M Aerospace Innovation Centre in Prestwick, £80M Scottish Marine Technology Park on the River Clyde and three Innovation Districts including the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland. The RVRC has been co-created with local authorities (Glasgow City Region) and their Innovation Districts), regional and sector bodies (Zero Waste Scotland, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, British Standards Institute) and industrial partners across the high-integrity energy, aerospace, marine and renewables sectors, with one clear aim of delivering on net-zero targets via a step-change transition to a value-maximising “ReMake” circular economy, embedding inward investment, entrepreneurship, high-value green jobs and increased productivity.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know