Circular material passports for buildings – Providing a robust methodology for promoting circular buildings

Abstract

The construction sector is responsible for about 50% of all extracted raw material and for over 35% of the EU’s total waste generation. To transition to a circular construction model, reliable and standardized information on the material composition of buildings is required. A Circular Material Passport (CMP) can organize and store such information. It provides an identity for a certain product and assigns value to it, enabling the recovery of materials by providing information for maintenance, recovery, reuse and recycling. A set of various CMPs can also be turned into a Building Materials Passport. This paper proposes a new structure for a CMP. The new CMP distinguishes itself from previous efforts to define material passports since it is aligned with the EU Level(s) framework of core sustainability indicators for office and residential buildings. This paper, firstly, reviews the relevant indicators from the Level(s) framework. Secondly, analyzes the current barriers in the development and use of material passports and proposes mitigation measure. Thirdly, identifies parameters to provide relevant information to promote circularity in the built environment. Fourthly, summarizes the findings and proposes a new structure for a lean CMP. The proposed CMP structure can be divided into three sections: 1) general data, 2) product context use and location, and 3) circularity potential. It can be concluded that indicators provided by the CMP could have the potential to be used for public procurement, as well as to define building permit criteria and assessment. Moreover, CMPs should be integrated with Building Information Modelling (BIM) and as a support tool for pre-demolition audits for identifying reusable and recyclable construction products and materials. The importance of policy development for the promotion of a standardized and regulated use of this tool needs to be highlighted.