Construction and the Built Environment

Abstract

Adoption of the circular economy (CE) in the construction and built environment sector has the potential to improve the sector’s environmental performance, enabling economic and social benefits across communities and regions, ultimately to facilitate achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The incorporation of CE strategies builds on multidimensional elements across the life cycle of construction projects, including efficient design; product longevity through regular repair and maintenance, and with the use of durable materials; reuse, recycling, and remanufacture of components and resources from obsolete buildings; and designing for disassembly. The adoption of a CE has a direct positive impact on SDGs 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 17. The remaining seven SDGs are impacted indirectly by CE practices, for example by generating more employment opportunities, resulting in economic development with concomitant social benefits. To further embed CE and closed-loop practices requires supporting initiatives: stakeholder coordination across the supply and value chains, capacity building and knowledge sharing among different stakeholders, using material flow analysis or material stock assessment for traceability information on resources across the life-cycle stages of different structures, and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) or blockchain technology for resource modelling, with life-cycle assessment techniques applied to minimize overall environmental impacts.