About us

Don’t Waste Buildings is the voluntary effort to put a spotlight on up-front, or embodied, carbon and make the case for the productive use of empty and underperforming buildings.

These buildings, all over the UK, and globally, are untapped economic and social assets, not structures to be casually discarded. They could be utilised to deliver much-needed housing and development at greater speed, lower cost and with less of an impact on our environment.

Our group is non-party political and is run by a collection of individuals made up of leading property developers, financiers, architects, engineers, heritage experts, and others.

You can learn more about our co-founders, chapter and work stream leads, and founding volunteers in the sections below. The ‘Hymn Sheet’ outlines our core issues and key ‘ask’ of policymakers and regulators.

We have around 150 founding volunteers in the London area who regularly attend meetings and case study tours, and who get involved in voluntary activities. Our LinkedIn group was launched in April 2024 and its membership continues to grow, tipping past 1,800 members in early June 2025. 

Regional UK Chapters have been launched in the West Midlands (Birmingham), North West (Manchester) and Scotland, and we launched our first international chapter in Australia (Melbourne).

We are a voluntary group, with no funding, membership fees, sponsorship or commercial interests of any kind. This allows us to maintain independence and to focus on achieving our key objectives:

Policy clarity and financial incentives to make the reuse of existing buildings simpler and more profitable in order to stimulate growth in the housing and development sector.