The Better Building Initiative — a Collaborative Ecosystem Involving All Stakeholders as Catalyst to Accelerate the Adoption of Circular Economy Innovations in the Construction Sector

Despite the recognition and a growing interest in sustainable innovation in the construction industry, the speed at which such innovations are being deployed into practical and scalable solutions that reduce the environmental impact of our built world is far too slow. Considering the complex structure of the industry, which involves a multidisciplinary mix of stakeholders from various backgrounds, adopting the systems thinking approach of circular economy (CE) is crucial to deploy effective and holistic solutions that can be scaled exponentially. Hence, addressing the challenges resulting from the complexity and multidisciplinary constitution of the industry for the deployment of sustainable innovations necessitates a deepening of collaboration between stakeholders with highly diverse cultures, ways of working, business models, and priorities. Within this communication, it is being discussed how a holistic system-thinking approach as constituted by the CE paradigm can be practically deployed in the typically traditional construction industry. The proposed approach, called the Better Building Initiative, centers around establishing an ecosystem for circular innovation in building and construction that involves intrinsically motivated stakeholders from all relevant disciplines and interests. Based on the action-oriented Better Building Manifesto, it is proposed how to unify the three sustainable innovation areas: materials, design, and process in one holistic innovation approach and develop an innovation platform that accelerates circular innovation in the building and construction industry.