Circular economy in mass timber construction: State-of-the-art, gaps and pressing research needs

Abstract

The building and construction sector is a major contributor to human environmental impact on the planet. It follows that the sector's contribution is also crucial for transition towards a low carbon society and circular economy (CE). Mass timber products, are one of the sustainable alternatives to traditional building materials and have led to the recent revolution in timber construction. While environmental benefits of mas timber manufacturing and construction is well documented the end-of-life (EOL) and the post-EOL options for mass timber buildings, their environmental benefits and CE potential are discussed much less. Short history of construction technology involving prefabricated mass timber panels compared to traditional building types results in virtually no documented cases of panelized mass timber structures reaching the EOL stage and no practical examples of incorporating CE concepts in such projects. In this study, a two-step systematic literature review was used, to define and classify 23 CE-based governing principles from six categories in the construction industry, and to use those principles to analyze the state-of-the-art circular approach in mass timber research. The study covered a total of 90 papers, of which 68 focused on the general construction industry and 22 specifically on the mass timber construction. Results of this review suggest substantial gaps in knowledge and pressing research needs for the development of holistic approaches to prepare the mass timber construction for circular economy.