Circular Construction and Supply Chains

The built environment is one of the world’s largest consumers of resources and raw materials. To achieve global sustainability goals, there is an urgency to shift from the linear (take-make-waste) model to the circular (recycle-remanufacture-reuse-repair) paradigm. 

Provided that construction sites are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, the supply chain perspective is crucial in the assessment of scope-based carbon emissions in the construction sector. In fact, reports from Green Building Council of Australia showed that the emissions produced over the entire life cycle of building – manufacturing, construction, maintenance and destruction - accounted for nearly one-sixth of the built-environment emissions in 2019. 

The aim of this cluster is to bring cross-disciplinary experts together to innovate alternative construction materials and smart sustainable manufacturing, taking the entire life cycle of a building into consideration. 

• Supply chain and life-cycle assessment of construction materials
• Social sciences in circular economy supply chains
• Assessing materials and construction efficiency using computational life-cycle analysis
• Using advanced manufacturing technology to minimize waste
• Circularity by design
• Conversion of waste material to valuable products for construction applications  

The Circular Construction cluster of the Smart Sustainable Building Network is actively working towards four of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
• Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
• Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
• Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts