The built environment shapes our daily lives, providing spaces for us to live, work, relax and travel in. The construction sector is a major consumer of resources, using a diversity of materials, and it is associated with a large share of greenhouse gas emissions. Construction and demolition waste are one of the largest global waste flows, with most of the waste typically being landfilled, or in some cases incinerated. There is a need to find new solutions to close resource loops and increase circularity in the built environment, where many material and product value chains come together.

From the structural materials (wood, cement, metal, glass, etc.) via the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and IT/electronic infrastructure (copper, precious metals, etc.) to the furniture and lamps (metal, wood, textiles, plastic) – pretty much every thinkable material and product is present in a building. Each has its own lifetime as well. The building itself will be there for decades, the infrastructure and interior will have changed a few times.

During this Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency conference to be held in Trondheim (Norway) and online by NTNU Sustainability  on 27 November – 28 November 2023 (lunch-to-lunch), participants will have a broad, multi-disciplinary perspective and explore how circular economy can be deployed to effect change in the day-to-day practice.

Some of the questions to be addressed during the conference:

• How do demographics and lifestyle impact the use of buildings?
• How can use intensity, lifetime, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling be enhanced?
• Can we transition the built environment and stay within today’s planetary boundaries?
• What are the short- and long-term impacts of the Renovate Europe programme?
• Can circularity be improved by interaction with other sectors (waste, renewable energy, Internet of Things, etc.)?
• How can standardization support?

In the one-hour scientific and breakout sessions a specific topic will be addressed in the form of presentations, workshop or hackathon.

A networking and billboard session takes place during the event. Between the sessions there is plenty of time to catch up, meet new people and check out the billboards. This is not a usual poster session. The #thebetterposter approach will be used to start conversations and get a quick overview of what is going on.