Consulting goes circular with CIRAA
CIRAA is a company active in promoting circular economy principles and helping businesses ensure that their plans and projects abide by those principles.
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Construction, Buildings and Infrastructure
Climate Change Mitigation through the Circular Economy
Circular economy intervention to go beyond the existing climate action in developing countries
Commissioned by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), which advises the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and co-authored by Circle Economy and Shifting Paradigms, this report uncovers the range of socio-economic and environmental co-benefits that circular mitigation interventions can bring to GEF countries of operation.
The report supports strategic advice by the STAP to the GEF and its implementing partners, and helps carve out a role for these bodies in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon circular economy. Its findings will be highly relevant to the development of future GEF projects and programmes across its different focal areas.
Transforming an old factory building into a community centre and party venue in Sint-Amands
The Flemish municipality of Sint-Amands has transformed an old shoe factory into the unique and sustainable multifunctional de Nestel community centre where residents and local associations can feel at home.
RE-sign: today's cities, tomorrow's mines
RE-sign has marketed an app matching up supply and demand for reclaimed construction materials.
Circular construction and renovation - Actions and recommendations to the Federal government for accelerating the circular economy in construction
Circular construction and renovation
The final study report on Circular construction and renovation - Actions and recommendations to the Federal government for accelerating the circular economy in construction proposes actions to be taken by Belgium's federal government (and thus the regional levels as well), with a view to accelerating renovation and circular construction with respect to building materials.
More specifically, the study aims to identify relevant instruments, obstacles and measures which are either needed or already underway, and to issue general recommendations for the federal authorities. The study does not address ways to put these measures into effect or possible changes in the instruments.
22 Apr 2021 to 23 Apr 2021
The circular economy is all about imagining together a sustainable future and engaging on a transformative path towards affordable, sustainable and beautiful lifestyles, be it buildings or textiles. To know more about the Bauhaus initiative, register for the first online high-level Conference on the New European Bauhaus that will take place on 22-23 April 2021.
Maersk: designing ships that can be dismantled and reused
Maersk has been developing ways to build recyclable ships that can be dismantled and reused.
11 May 2021
On 11 May at 3 p.m. CEST, join Rijkswaterstaat, Madaster, Restado/Concular and Institut National de l’Economie Circulaire for online interactive workshops showcasing success stories and identifying challenges and opportunities in fields such as public procurement, digital logbooks and circular design for infrastructure work. Registrations are open!
RUCONBAR project reduces road noise
RUCONBAR, developed in a project which ran from 2011 to 2014, is a highly absorptive, environmentally-friendly concrete noise barrier. It is an innovative mixture of recycled waste tyres and concrete which forms a porous, lightweight, sound absorbing panel.
FISSAC - Fostering Industrial Symbiosis for a Sustainable Resource Intensive Industry across the extended Construction Value Chain
FISSAC is a project seeking to stimulate the coordination and facilitation of work in the construction and demolition value chain. Accordingly, the initiative aims to gather various stakeholders and to encourage the development and adoption of a common methodology and software platform for the exchange of information and best practices.
The overall aim of the project is to help companies with sustainability practices, by creating models that can be used by anyone. The models can be:
- manufacturing processes (such as demonstrations of close-loop recycling processes to transform waste into secondary raw materials)
- product validations (examples of eco-design and eco-innovative construction products)
- industrial symbiosis models (software platforms for example).
Accelerating transition to circularity with Circular Berlin
Circular Berlin is an NGO that focuses on making Berlin circular. Berlin is envisioned as a resilient, citizen-oriented region. Resources are sourced locally and their value is maintained as part of a continuous loop. Circular Berlin operates across areas such as community-building, education, as well as developing knowledge on industries with a high potential for circularity: the built environment, food and biomass, textile and fashion, and materials and products.
Circular Berlin hosts events in which the community meets, debates and exchanges. Topics range from sharing knowledge to collaborative planning sessions, and has built open-source digital tools allowing information to be exchanged more quickly.
For more information on specific projects, consult their website.
25 Mar 2021
Thanks to innovation, forests will be key for sustainable urban development. The European BASAJAUN project will optimize the use of forest products to boost the economy in rural areas and obtain new materials and construction systems based on the circular economy of wood.
AIMPLAS will participate in the development of new profiles manufactured from natural resins and reinforcement agents.
The EU Ecolabel for hard covering products
The EU Ecolabel for hard covering products
The EU Ecolabel is the official European Union label for environmental excellence.
It is awarded to sustainably-designed products, thereby encouraging innovation, and contributing to the EU’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050 and to the circular economy.
Industry can use the EU Ecolabel to offer consumers an eco-friendly alternative to conventional products and help them lower their daily environmental impact.
Ambitious criteria have been set, focusing on the main environmental impacts generated over the lifecycle of these products. This ensures that EU Ecolabel hard covering products are among the best on the market in terms of environmental performance.
Access the full list of EU Ecolabel criteria for hard coverings products here.
Estrategia de Economía Circular de Castilla-La Mancha
Castilla-La Mancha's Circular Economy Strategy for 2030
Castilla-La Mancha’s Circular Economy Strategy for 2030 is comprised of 21 main areas and 48 measures organised within six policy strands. There are four strategic sectors (industrial, agri-food, construction and tourism) and various objectives to be achieved by the region in order to implement circular models in the 17 focus areas.
This strategy is based on a circular economy analysis of the region, and relies on the collaboration and involvement of all stakeholders. It will be developed and implemented by means of two action plans, covering the 2021-2025 and 2026-2030 periods.
12 Mar 2021
The Commission would like to hear the European citizens' views on the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.
BauKarussell: recovery-oriented demolition
BauKarussell is a consortium supported and co-run by industrial actors and the City of Vienna. It seeks to establish circular loops in the city's construction sector, with an emphasis on large-scale demolition. The platform focuses on compliance with new regulations and ensuring that reusable components are dismantled and made available for reuse through partnerships with large property developers.
Green practices are becoming standard practice in the construction sector in Austria, and this initiative is in line with that trend. Workers from social enterprises actually prepare material for reuse. It is estimated that the consortium could create around 9 000 jobs in Austria.
Alchemia-nova: treating waste water using green walls
Alchemia-nova, the Institute for innovative phytochemistry and closed loop processes, has colloborated with vertECO, GRETA and LooPi to develop three types of green walls, which treat wastewater to service water standards and create plant biomass and fertiliser.
Neocomp: recycling glass-fibre-reinforced plastics
Neocomp has developed a method for recycling glass fibre polymers used in the rotor blades of wind turbines. The polymers are shredded, then used as an additive in cement.
Refurbishing a kindergarten building with minimal environmental impact in Koprivnica
In 2018, the Croatian city of Koprivnica needed to replace a prefabricated kindergarten. Instead of demolishing the building entirely, Koprivnica opted for Green Public Procurement (GPP) and aimed to maintain as much of the physical structure as possible, while refurbishing and improving it.
05 Mar 2021
A breakfast briefing will be held on 5 March (9-10 a.m. CET) to launch the Think2030 paper ‘A low-carbon and circular industry for Europe’, co-written by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).