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A Review of Europe’s Circular Economy in the Building Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Cyrine Mrad

    (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Braganza, Portugal)

  • Luís Frölén Ribeiro

    (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Braganza, Portugal
    Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aerospace—LAETA/Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial—INEGI, Campus da FEUP, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

This article evaluates Europe’s building sector’s circular economy (CE). This industry is responsible for 42% of energy consumption, more than 50% of extracted materials, 30% of Europe’s water and waste generation, and 35% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study focuses on peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science databases. Of the first 1750 publications, 2.9% were eligible for a full-text reading and analysis. Most of the trending studies, 92%, promote the circular economy concept through construction materials rather than analyzing the impact of the construction sector on the environment and finding solutions for better implementation, and 41% promote recycling and reuse as the only options. New Design solutions are in 12% of the studies, six-fold more than Law and Legislation, which is only 2%. Finding an optimal combination of assessing the life cycle of buildings and components and searching for different ways of managing the Construction and Demolition Waste at end-of-life is between 33% and 39%. Ultimately, CE proposed frameworks for the building industry based on 10R principles variations were evaluated. An alternative framework for a circular strategy for the building industry that focuses on Upcycling, replacing the Recover principle is presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Cyrine Mrad & Luís Frölén Ribeiro, 2022. "A Review of Europe’s Circular Economy in the Building Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14211-:d:958902
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Silvia Serranti & Roberta Palmieri & Giuseppe Bonifazi & Riccardo Gasbarrone & Gauthier Hermant & Herve Bréquel, 2023. "An Automated Classification of Recycled Aggregates for the Evaluation of Product Standard Compliance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Xianhai Meng & Simran Das & Junyu Meng, 2023. "Integration of Digital Twin and Circular Economy in the Construction Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-14, September.

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