The benefits of circular construction and a consistently applied programmatic approach to all repair, renovation, maintenance, and new build projects include a significant reduction in financial and environmental waste.
Keywords: Construction, facilitiesmanagement, totalcostofownership, assetmangement, lifecycle, costmanagement, Circular economy, Recycling, Waste management, Reuse, Machine learning
What is circular construction? The application of strategies such as integrated planning, procurement, and project delivery, and a regenerative model for materials reuse, design for disassembly, prefabrication, and recycling for reducing resource consumption and waste.
What is circular procurement? A process of prioritizing the purchase and user of products and services designed to minimize waste, maximize resource reuse, and extend “product” lifespans throughout their entire lifecycle, thereby supporting a more sustainable supply chain; essentially, it involves looking beyond initial purchase price to consider the product’s entire life cycle and potential for recycling or reusing materials when it reaches the end of its useful life.
The construction industry is a heavy consumer of natural resources including materials and energy consumption and a major contributor to environmental issues including elevated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, environmental degradation, and global warming. Furthermore, approximately 80% of construction materials end up as waste at the end of their useful life, and 80% 0f construction projects* are over budget, late, or completed with some level of perceived dissatisfaction from participants/stakeholders.
Unfortunately, the lack of a centralized materials reuse/recycling model specific to the built environment presents a major barrier, as does the relative lack of leadership to support requisite change throughout the AECOO** sector. Additionally, knowledge sharing among built environment participants and stakeholders (owners, architects, builders, materials suppliers…) remains limited due to industry culture.
A prioritization of material reuse and lifecycle asset management form both overall cost and benefit perspectives must occur before the AECOO sector can achieve any level of measurable improvement.
*Construction includes new builds, rebuild, renovation, or maintenance activities.
**AECOO – Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner, Operator/Operations