Circular Economy is a novel approach in the design, delivery, management, renovation, demolition and disposal of buildings and related activities in neighbourhoods and cities. Research organisations and actors in the industry... [ view full abstract ]
Circular Economy is a novel approach in the design, delivery, management, renovation, demolition and disposal of buildings and related activities in neighbourhoods and cities. Research organisations and actors in the industry are globally exploring what role the real estate and construction sector will play in circular economy in general, and what the applications of circularity will be. Despite of a multitude of pioneering individual case examples that demonstrate the significance of circular economy in buildings and construction, uncertainty and confusion remain amongst the actors over its definition. Research field and industry are still in a learning phase in what comes to the topic, and there is a need for a common understanding of the meaning and implications of circular economy in buildings and construction.
The authors aim to contribute to this need and have immersed themselves into the task of aggregating information and case examples on circular buildings and construction and organising a series of discussions and stakeholder workshops. The goal is to formulate, together with the key actors, grounds for common understanding and shared definition circularity in building and construction. This will greatly support the creation of new sustainable business opportunities in the field.
The work started in Spring 2017 when the authors contributed to a short video introducing the rationale for circular economy in the built environment. In Autumn 2017, the authors conducted a first study over case examples of circular building in Europe. The work on identifying forerunner projects and actors applying circular economy in the industry is a continuous work creating an overview of actors and activities in the field.
The authors aim to work on the definition of circular building both on local and global scale. On a local scale in Finland a nine-month long acceleration program engages the industry itself to create the definition and targets for circular building using participatory methods, workshops and online forums. As an outcome the authors wish to accelerate the transition to circular practices in the construction sector in Finland and to create new knowledge sharing and business networks, which are crucial for the development.
On a global scale, good practices will be collected also from emerging economies, and a series of discussion will be organized by the One Planet Network Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme to disseminate information between practitioners worldwide. Webinars linking public procurement and business models have been conducted and a Networking Event was organized in World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year to bring recent insight to the work. The authors are committed to compile the information into a global status report on circular economy in buildings and construction.
We hope to contribute our work to a global vision and setting of quantifiable targets and reliable assessment metrics for circularity in the sector.
Lessons learnt from practical projects , Other (please speficy on the next page)
