Towards a Circular Economy in the Built Environment – Overcoming Market, Finance and Ownership Challenger
This report examines the obstacles to accelerating the circular transition that are faced by the European construction industry, and what can be done to overcome them. It is a collaborative research effort by the Circular Buildings Coalition (CBC), which has been set up to coordinate built-environment stakeholders working towards this transition. The CBC is an initiative of Metabolic, Circle Economy, World Green Building Council, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with Arup, funded by the Laudes Foundation. The report is based on extensive consultations with industry leaders on the circular economy from the construction and finance sectors.
Our pre-study research identified three areas in which systemic challenges impede the scaling of circular-economy methods: markets and supply chains, financing circular buildings, and ownership models. Over the course of six months, CBC researched these three systemic challenges through a literature review, desktop research and interviews with 50 stakeholders in all parts of the construction value chain, including asset owners, real-estate investors, financial institutions, contractors, designers and NGOs. These interviews focused on what the interviewees see as the main pain points of the transition. Conclusions were tested and discussed in four workshops, occurring between August and December 2022. The research was further supported by bottom-up modelling of material flows of the construction sector (see page 26, Rationale and Methods of Research) aimed at understanding the scale of the challenge across Europe.