A Material Passport Ontology for a circular economy

Construction industry largely produces long-life, unique, and inflexible products; and combined with dispersed supply chains, it makes material tracking difficult. Thus, to achieve a circular economy (CE) in construction, there is a need for managing material information at the asset level to support reuse and recovery. This study explores the solutions for a CE in construction, and adopts a critical review, and a systematic search and review process. Initially the critical review for CE solutions revealed that maintaining authentic material information via material passports (MPs) and adopting industrialised construction (IC) for resource efficiency and flexibility are the key actions for CE implementation. As initial findings suggested the implementation of MPs in IC as imperative for a CE in construction, it was deemed necessary to develop a framework for MPs’ creation and management in IC. Thus, a further critical review was conducted to explore MPs and IC in detail, and a systematic search and review process extracted the actual information that goes into MPs, which was further categorised under various IC lifecycle processes at different stages of lifecycle, to present the incorporation of MPs into IC. The knowledge of MP processes and information in IC from this review is the vital component for the development of a necessary information management framework for MPs. This study can also be a basis for further research on the application of digital technologies and managerial actions required to realise operational MPs in IC, which is required for material circularity in construction.

Material passport constitutes a digital repository for tracking and recording the circularity characteristic of materials to support end-of-life recovery, recycling, refurbishment, and reuse. As essential enablers of the circular economy, this paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the scientific literature on material passports in the construction industry. Drawing on a sample of 64 peer-reviewed articles, this study synthesized the lifecycle considerations, digital technologies, circular materials, and circularity characteristics prominent in material passports. The results revealed a significant rise in material passport research since 2016. However, the scientific material passport research has been dominated by evidence from Europe. Only 17% of the reviewed studies developed actual material passports for real-world projects, while the rest mainly developed conceptual frameworks and simulations. It is discovered that 40 digital technologies have been explored to develop material passports, with building information modelling dominating. Over 60 potential circular materials have been studied in the literature, where wood, concrete, aggregates, and steel received the highest attention. The key research gaps include fragmented lifecycle coverage of MPs, static BIM centric implementations and inconsistent definitions and measurement protocols for circularity characteristics. Therefore, this paper mapped the boundaries of the literature on material passports for circular economy in construction industry.

Extending the capability of component digital threads using material passports

A set of trusted information in the form of material passports is necessary in order to understand the circular value of systems and materials in the built environment. Innovations such as digital technologies and material passports are useful circular economy transitional tools in managing the materials flows and decarbonizing the built environment. Material ppassports are datasets and reliable information consisting of the entire value chain—specifications of the materials used, and specific supply chains involved from the sources to producers, distributors and consumers or users; and technical facts to improve the re-use or recycling of materials and to enhance their residual value. This paper presents the material passports in the built environment for the transition towards a circular economy as well as the latest trends in research and practice.

The construction sector is one of the most resource-intensive industries globally, yet the transition toward a circular economy (CE) remains slow and fragmented, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study addresses a research gap by focusing on Sweden’s SME-dominated construction sector, an underexplored context in CE research. Using Porter’s Five Forces as a novel strategic lens, we identify how external market barriers and enabling technologies shape the pace and scale of circular adoption. A qualitative research design was employed, comprising semi-structured interviews during 2024-2025, with 40 industry professionals selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis, validated through triangulation and member checking, revealed seven critical challenges, including fragmented regulation, high certification costs, low market demand for circular solutions, and insufficient technological infrastructure. These barriers were mapped onto Porter’s Five Forces framework, illustrating how competitive and institutional pressures constrain CE progress, especially for SMEs. However, the study also identifies high-potential enablers, such as digital solutions. Grounded in real-world stakeholder perspectives, our findings introduce new insights into how competitive and institutional pressures constrain CE progress and how digital innovations (e.g., material passports, AI-based procurement) can help close the implementation gap. By integrating these insights into a strategic framework, we offer targeted policy and innovation pathways to accelerate CE adoption in the built environment. It underscores the need for aligned regulatory, financial, and technological interventions to support scalable, SME-driven circular transitions in construction, with broader implications for resource sustainability and environmental policy. • The gap between CE ambitions and practice in Swedish construction is explored. • Porter’s Five Forces framework is applied to identify external barriers and enablers. • Seven key challenges identified (e.g., fragmented regulations, low circular demand). • Digital tools (AI-driven procurement, material passports) are highlighted as solutions • Targeted recommendations are provided for SMEs, policymakers and industry actors.

PurposeThe Turkish construction sector, facing mounting environmental pressures, needs to rapidly adopt circular economy (CE) principles. However, a critical barrier is the lack of accessible and comprehensive material information. This paper investigates how building information modeling (BIM) can facilitate the adoption of material passports (MPs) to overcome this challenge and helps enabling circularity in Turkish construction.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach is adopted, focusing on the New Istanbul Esenler Arena, a major sports facility designed with BIM. An in-depth analysis of the project's BIM model and material data was conducted to develop a practical framework for integrating MPs into BIM workflows. The framework outlines a comprehensive MP data structure, addresses technical integration strategies and highlights the importance of stakeholder collaboration.FindingsThe research demonstrates that integrating MPs with BIM has the potential to significantly enhance material tracking throughout the building lifecycle, leading to more informed decision-making regarding material selection, reuse and recycling. This approach can improve material recovery rates, reduce construction waste and minimize the environmental impact of construction projects. The study also identifies key challenges to MP implementation, such as ensuring data accuracy and interoperability, and proposes strategies to overcome these hurdles.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the limited but growing body of knowledge on the practical implementation of BIM and MPs for circular construction, particularly in the Turkish context. The proposed framework, informed by a real-world case study, provides valuable guidance for construction professionals, policymakers and researchers seeking to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in the built environment.

The circular economy implementation in the built environment is hindered by the complexity of CE strategies and unique nature of the construction industry. Digital technologies have been explored as promising solutions to aid decision making and enable circular solutions in the architecture, engineering, and construction sector. The literature on both circular economy and digital technology fields has grown exponentially in the past few years, and there is a need for a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art applications, integrations, potential, and limitations of digital technologies in the circular economy context. Through a systematic literature review, this study identified ten key digital technologies to enable circularity in the building sector: building information modeling, spatial data acquisition, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Internet of Things, blockchain, digital twin, augmented and virtual realities, digital platform/marketplace, material passports, and additive manufacturing and digital fabrication. In this study, we review current applications, discuss their integrations, match digital technology opportunities with circular economy barriers, and map the digital technologies applications along a building’s lifecycle. Blockchain and material passport technologies demonstrated potential to enable circular economy strategies throughout the whole building’s lifecycle, but their application remains limited in the construction industry. Building information modeling was found to be at the core of most technological integrations, but more research is needed to understand the impact of such integrations in supporting circular economy policies, standards, and assessment methods. Finally, collaborative research efforts are needed to unveil the risks of digitalization in the built environment, including risks concerning privacy and cybersecurity.

The construction industry is responsible for nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes over 50% of the planet’s natural resources. As population growth continues, the demand for these resources is expected to rise. Within this context, where business models are still largely based on the Linear Economy (LE), the Circular Economy (CE) emerges as a strategy for promoting economic development while reducing dependence on natural resource consumption. To enable the transition from LE to CE, digital tools such as Material Passports (MP) are essential. An MP compiles data and information describing the characteristics of materials to facilitate their recovery and reuse. This study aims to model the MP of a wood-frame panel commercially produced by Tecverde in Brazil. The panel was designed for a building project using 2024 version of Autodesk Revit software. The proposed MP contains 49 parameters grouped into nine categories, and the data were obtained from open databases provided by the company. The results highlight existing challenges related to sustainability parameters, as well as opportunities to incorporate circular value principles into the construction industry.

Digital transformation lagged in the built environment due to the sector’s dependence on legacy systems, inadequate budget, lack of standards, difficulty in realising benefits and inadequate cross-departmental communication due to its fragmented structure. The European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) highlights construction and buildings as key sectors for implementing digital passports to provide comprehensive life cycle information of products, prompting compliance efforts among UK organisations engaged in international trade. This study presents the development of a Material Passport (MP) testbed to demonstrate the traceability of building components and elements. To achieve this, the key stakeholders, user stories, and data requirements were identified through interactions with six industry stakeholders in the UK. The interactive MP testbed was developed using Unity 3DTM and a 3D Building Information Model (BIM) of a modular house provided by a UK-based sustainable building component manufacturer. The testbed allows the company to track the lifecycle of building components, significantly improving their ability to manage their supply chain and promote a circular economy. The unique product ID of each building component embedded in the MP supports the quality control and assurance which will be an important part of having their product certified and tested. In the long term, the physical tagging of the parts using the MP aims to increase productivity and minimise waste by up to 30%.

Circular economy in the construction industry: A systematic literature review

Circular Economy and Digital Technologies are emerging models recently identified as potential fields for achieving sustainable practice in various industries, including the built environment. Circular Economy has emerged as an alternative to the conventional linear "take-make-use-dispose" system of production and consumption to design out waste, reduce CO2 emission, and regenerate nature through principles of circularity. While digital technologies have been identified as critical enablers of the circular economy across sectors, their implementation in the built environment remains fragmented. This paper presents a theoretical exploration of how digital technologies, such as Building Information Modeling, Digital Twins, the Internet of Things, Material Passport, and Blockchain, can facilitate the implementation of circular strategies across the construction value chain. Through conceptual mapping, this paper highlights how digital technologies can be leveraged to facilitate circular strategies such as narrowing, slowing, and closing the loops in the built environment. In addition, the paper also draws on two prominent innovation models: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) frameworks underpinning an acceptance or rejection of digital innovation within organizations to propose a pathway for transitioning toward a circular economy. A hybrid TAM-TEO model is proposed to investigate the potential of digital technologies to transition to a circular-oriented business model in an organization. The proposed model provides insights into how internal (perceived usefulness and ease of use) and external (economic, technological, environmental, and organizational) factors influence circular adoption in an organization. The paper lays the groundwork for future empirical research on implementing circular economy practice in the built environment using digital technologies.

The construction sector is one of the largest contributors to global resource consumption and waste generation, making it a critical focus area for circular economy (CE) strategies. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of CE-related research in the construction field over the period 2015–2024. Using data retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and analyzed through VOSviewer and Excel, a total of 2,738 relevant publications were identified following systematic filtering and manual screening. The results show a significant increase in publication activity since 2019, with strong contributions from countries such as China, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Journals like Journal of Cleaner Production and Sustainability dominate in both publication volume and co-citation influence. The co-authorship and institutional networks reveal the emergence of interdisciplinary and cross-national collaborations, reflecting a growing global interest in sustainable construction practices. Three key research clusters were identified: (i) policy implementation frameworks and strategic barriers to CE adoption, (ii) lifecycle assessment and environmental decision-support systems, and (iii) material innovation and reuse practices in circular construction. Hotspots within these themes include digital tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and material passports, environmental metrics like lifecycle assessment (LCA) and Whole Building Circularity Indicator (WBCI), and the emergence of bio-based and recyclable construction materials. Despite advancements, several key challenges remain, including methodological fragmentation, regional policy misalignment, data inconsistency, and limited representation from developing regions. Current gaps include insufficient integration between digital tools and CE metrics, lack of unified circularity indicators, and underexplored social and economic dimensions of CE strategies. Future research should focus on standardising LCA models, validating circular indicators in practice, and addressing context-specific implementation barriers through cross-disciplinary and global collaboration. The study concludes with a proposed research agenda aimed at accelerating systemic transitions through digital innovation, institutional coordination, and inclusive policy frameworks. This study also provides actionable insights into emerging research priorities and regional gaps, supporting scholars, industry stakeholders, and policymakers in aligning construction practices with CE principles. Mapped a decade of circular economy research trends in construction. Identified key themes: policy frameworks, digital tools and material circularity. Revealed gaps in regional policies, interdisciplinary collaboration and implementation strategies.

Lack of data and difficulty in tracking materials and elements are two major obstacles in the construction industry that hinder the realisation of a circular economy. Data templates, material passports (MPs), and digital product passports (DPPs) are passport instruments that provide valuable information about buildings. Data templates deliver digital standardised data structures for MPs (digital data sets describing building characteristics of, e.g. elements) and DPPs (cross-sectoral passports developed by the European Union to collect product data for sustainability).MPs, which are associated with the built environment, help urban miners and building owners assess the value and reuse potential of building materials and elements. Several initiatives, such as Madaster, Concular, and Platform CB’23, have produced data templates and MPs for new and existing buildings. Challenges to their use include the lack of standardisation of data templates and MPs and difficulties in collecting and tracing data needed to create and maintain MPs through a building’s life cycle. Standardisation would foster the implementation of passports, but aligning existing concepts and identifying overlaps remains a present challenge. Future research and practice suggest that using geographic information systems, laser scanning, and computer vision will help deploy MPs more effectively in practice.

Our planet is a closed system with limited material resources, yet our current economic model is designed in a one-way direction from resource extraction to disposal, leading to resource depletion. This book proposes a new economic model, offering an alternative to this linear ‘take-make-waste’ economy. Material Matters shows a way of creating a circular economy by using the unlimited resources we have: renewable energy, data and intelligence. It describes a system based on circular business models centred on selling performance rather than ownership, designing products and buildings as resource banks and equipping products with a ‘material passport’ to ensure their usability for future generations. Businesses thereby become custodians of materials, rather than consumers of materials and sellers of products. The book evokes the vision of a radically new economic model based on a compelling narrative, supported with cases that have been developed in conjunction with major companies, for example, convincing Philips to sell light instead of lamps, saving energy and materials by creating a whole new business model, a case which has become iconic for the circular economy. Material Matters is not a somber analysis of the state of the planet but a concrete and comprehensive agenda for change, offering perspectives for taking action for business and individual consumers alike.

Materials passports are designed to be a data collection, processing and reporting mechanism describing attributes of products and their components that give them value for use and reuse in the Circular Economy. Their use for buildings is highlighted here, although they are applicable in diverse industries. Experience from the EU Horizon 2020 Buildings as Materials Banks (BAMB) project is a basis to describe their development. This overview describes how materials passports are evolving and proliferating, as well as solutions to risks posed by their over-simplification.