Concrete accounts for 8% of the world's CO₂ emissions. Efforts are being made to reduce its embodied carbon, but reusing concrete from existing buildings has significant untapped potential.

This study presents an innovative digital workflow for predicting the lifespan of concrete elements, CO₂ uptake via natural carbonation and embodied carbon savings through reuse. The workflow was tested in a building from the 1960s with high reuse potential. 

It found that most precast elements would last long enough to be reused effectively and that reuse is better for the environment than carbonation.

The digital workflow is useful for quickly assessing lifespan, carbonation and embodied carbon of concrete. It is a useful tool when designing for reuse.

With progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) badly off track, solutions are needed - and the circular economy has clear potential.

This Chatham House paper explores how the circular economy could support each of the 17 SDGs and argues for this concept to be put at the heart of emerging plans to drive sustainable development towards 2050. 

It identifies five priorities for action: embedding principles of justice and inclusivity into the circular transition; increasing international policy coordination; reforming the financial architecture to ensure the circular economy gets the investment it needs; rewiring the global system of trade to make it easier to trade circular products and services; and developing common standards and metrics.

This JRC report emphasises the importance of standardisation in promoting circular construction and the circular economy. 

It discusses the need for future standardisation and pre-normative research for circular construction in terminology, metrology, performance characterisation, compatibility and operability assessments.

The report highlights the need for clear objectives, focused standards, cost-effectiveness, common future scenarios, resource indicators, and practical implementation aspects to advance circularity in the construction industry. The recommendations provided aim to guide future standardisation activities, aligning with circular principles to drive industry competitiveness and environmental stewardship.

The EU-funded 3R Connect project has established a common roadmap based on the existing strategies of the regions of Flanders, Greater Copenhagen and Northern Portugal. The goal is to accelerate circular transformation within the plastics, textiles and construction sectors.

The completed project has produced three comprehensive Joint Action Plans for Circular Economy in Plastics, Construction, and Textiles. These action plans are the culmination of an initiative that pooled input from over 200 private, public and research actors. Through their collective expertise, 3R Connect identified actionable strategies to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Europe.

The action plans can be used by other regions: for instance, they can identify partners and join specific actions.

The Global Circularity Protocol for Business is a new global initiative spearheaded by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in collaboration with the One Planet Network (OPN). It will engage partners from academia, cross-sectoral businesses, NGOs and policymakers to address accountability and policy gaps currently impeding the scaling of circularity.

This landscape analysis provides guidance on how metrics and indicators can improve circularity performance aligned with a sustainable future, starting with gaps in policies, standards and frameworks. It is the first milestone in the Circular Transition Impact Analysis workstream, aiming to identify the key impacts of a circular transition for climate, nature and social indicators and improved value chain performance.

Fast moving consumer goods companies (FMCGs) and retailers have the power to make nature-positive food that’s good for farmers and business mainstream.

To do this, food designers can use the principles of the circular economy and apply them across all dimensions of food design.

This report:

• Identifes the significant opportunity for FMCGs and retailers to catalyse a rapid transition towards a nature-positive food system;
• Explores how circular design for food can be fully leveraged as the approach to realise such an outcome;
• Analyses the economics of circular design opportunities for a select number of food types in the EU and the UK, using a replicable approach;
• Lays out what businesses and policymakers can do to accelerate progress on this agenda.
   

As governments and industries around the globe move towards a circular economy, it’s key to align ambitions and create a common direction of travel. 

This paper sets out five universal circular economy policy goals around which governments and businesses can align to achieve their common objectives. Applicable across sectors and local contexts, these policy goals can – working in conjunction – help governments build healthier economic recoveries and lower the cost of transition for business.

The goals are as follows:

• Stimulate design for the circular economy
• Manage resources to preserve value
• Make the economics work
• Invest in innovation, infrastructure and skills
• Collaborate for system change

A comprehensive circular economy approach is the only solution that can match the scale of the global textile waste problem.

This report, written for policymakers, feeds into the global debate on textile waste and pollution. It focuses on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies, stipulating mandatory, fee-based schemes. These are a crucial policy tool to ensure discarded textiles are collected and put back in circulation at scale, rather than being incinerated or landfilled.

The data modelling and analytics used focus on selected countries (including Chile, EU Member States, Ghana, India, Kenya, Tunisia and the USA), chosen due to the significant role they play in the trade of used textiles, as well as the existence or ongoing development of EPR policy.

This report discusses the EU’s clean energy transition plans, highlighting how circular economy strategies and sustainable resource management can support strategic autonomy while being Paris-compatible. 

It aims to inform stakeholders about the EU’s plans to safeguard its clean energy transition ambitions. Specifically, the report highlights how the uptake of circular economy strategies can contribute to the strategic autonomy agenda (with particular regard to CRMs) while being compatible with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. It also reflects on the EU’s overall material footprint in the context of global equities as the Union transitions to a climate-neutral and circular economy.

This report demonstrates the value of a circular economy that is regenerative by design.

The health of our economy relies on the health of nature, but nature has been overexploited and undervalued – and is declining at an unprecedented rate. That needs to change.

This study focuses on Europe’s built environment and explores how a nature-positive circular economy in the sector can unlock a huge economic opportunity for the continent, increasing resilience, competitiveness and the vibrancy of its cities. 

Six circular economy strategies have been selected based on their potential to drive economic and nature-positive gains and realise wider environmental and social outcomes.