World’s First Material Passport for a Flexible Workspace
Case Study:
How Koba and Cast embedded circularity into 100 Barbirolli Square
” This is about transparency, accountability and future-proofing our workspaces. The material passport is just the start — we want to give our residents and partners complete visibility into what makes up their space, and how it can evolve over time without compromising the planet”.
Paul Nellist – Managing Director at Koba
Koba is a forward-thinking flexible workspace provider committed to sustainable practices. With a focus on creating innovative and environmentally responsible office solutions, Koba aims to redefine the future of workspaces.
Challenge: Overcoming the construction industry’s entrenched throwaway culture
Koba set out to challenge the status quo of the construction industry’s deeply ingrained throwaway culture—particularly within office fit-outs, where high churn rates generate excessive embodied carbon and waste. But for Koba, this wasn’t just about minimising impact—it was about proving what’s possible. Their mission? To create workspaces that are beautiful, functional, and genuinely sustainable—without greenwash. Their first project at 100 Barbirolli Square in Manchester marked the launchpad for this ambition.
Solution: Focus on circularity and transparency
Driven by a circular economy mindset, Koba aimed to design-out waste and design-in reuse from the outset, using verified material passports to provide clear evidence of environmental performance. This approach not only supports healthier supply chains and interiors but also empowers teams to work flexibly, connect with community purpose, and thrive in spaces that support both people and planet.
In their quest for a solution, Koba discovered the Madaster platform, an online register for materials and products in the built environment. Madaster’s ability to provide insights into material composition, circularity, detachability, environmental impact, and material value made it the ideal choice. Paul Nellist, Managing Director at Koba, stated, ‘Madaster enables us to store and visualise circularity data, and having the ability to display that within our sites will be a big part of our brand proposition.’ development at 100 Barbirolli Square, Manchester.
How material analysis can help create a circular construction project. Read here.
Results: Exemplar circular interventions and a material passport
The project incorporated a wide range of circular interventions, from repurposing a former car park floor into a high quality office space, adapting standard partition systems to make they easier to remove – enhancing the flexibility of the space, to sourcing reclaimed raised access flooring, worktops made from furniture by-products, refurbished chairs and flooring with take-back schemes.
By partnering with Cast, Koba utilised Madaster to create the first publicly published material passport in the UK for a flexible workspace. Cast used their bill of materials covering the internal partitions, flooring, surface finishes and furniture to record the quantities of materials used, their circularity attributes and upfront embodied carbon. Appliances were documented, but not fully passported due to data availability.
Material intensity
69 kg/m2
Circularity
22%
Detachability
59%
Upfront carbon A1-3
52 kgCO2e/m2
” We’re thrilled to celebrate a major milestone with Koba and Cast – together, we’ve published the very first material passport for a flexible workspace. This is a landmark moment for circularity in commercial interiors and a powerful example of how collaboration can drive meaningful innovation in the built environment”.
Andrea Charlson – Managing Director at Madaster UK
Next steps
This is the start of Koba’s journey to evidence the sustainability of the workspaces they deliver through material passports. The ambition for future projects is to increase the amount of product passport data that is provided directly from suppliers. This initiative has set a new benchmark for transparency and accountability in sustainable interiors which Koba hope others will follow. This marks the beginning of Koba’s mission to evidence the sustainability of their workspaces through material passports. For future developments, the team aims to increase supplier collaboration by embedding more product passport data directly from the source.
By leading the way, Koba and Cast have set a new benchmark for transparency and accountability in commercial interiors — one that others in the industry can follow.
