An investigation on construction companies’ attitudes towards importance and adoption of circular economy strategies

Abstract

The construction industry is causing resource shortages and waste but has the potential to become an industry that can practice the value of a circular economy (CE). A number of studies on the circular economy have been published recently, but few studies have investigated the awareness and practices of construction companies related to CE or provided effective CE strategies for their projects. This study formulated 26 CE strategies based on a literature review and experts’ opinions. The attitudes regarding importance and adoption awareness of the construction companies were analyzed via a questionnaire survey and the importance-adoption analysis (IAA) model. The results show that small-sized companies and senior executives have a higher awareness of circularity, and medium- and large-sized companies face the CE with a more conservative attitude. In particular, construction projects have adopted mature CE strategies such as building information modeling (BIM) for project management, construction, demolition and waste management, and maintenance management, while CE strategies regarding construction systematization, resource recovery, and regeneration are potential strategies preferred by construction companies. In-depth interviews also reveal that three main obstacles, such as high CE adoption costs, lack of local market demands, and owners’ low awareness of CE, may slow down the implementation of circularity in the construction industry. The findings of this study are beneficial for exploring the current situations of CE in the construction industry and could help the government to better understand the problems of CE development, so as to formulate future development policies and suggestions.