The transition to zero emission and energy positive buildings, neighbourhoods and communities is key to unlocking the EU's climate and energy ambitions by transforming both new and existing buildings into drivers of decarbonisation.
This policy recommendation paper puts forward 10 key policy recommendations for national and regional policy makers for overcoming financial barriers for building renovation and transforming existing buildings into zero emission or positive energy neighbourhoods by 2050.
The recommendations are based on experiences and learnings from 8 research and innovations projects in Europe, including 33 demonstration sites around Europe.
This paper reviews digital tools that support the transition to a circular economy in the built environment.
It explores how computer-aided design, building information modeling and computational plugins can assist architects and engineers in creating more sustainable buildings. While Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) remains the main approach for evaluating environmental impacts, the study highlights other methods and tools that can help assess circular design strategies, such as computational methods to design with reused elements and circularity indicators. The paper identifies both the strengths and limitations of these digital tools.
This research is useful to academics and to practitioners designing buildings aligned with circular economy principles.
It's a five-day event dedicated to the circular economy and sustainable development, with a rich programme of sessions and the main event: European Sustainability Congress 2024. Some sessions are hybrid or online.
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.
BUILD UP, the European portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings, is hosting the fifth in a series of six webinars organised with the CircularB COST Action project. This one is on Contractors, Builders and Manufacturers of Construction Products.
Are you working on a topic related to the circular economy? Are you new to the circular economy but want to find out more? Then don't miss Circular Wallonia's Quinzaine de l’économie circulaire 2024 (Circular Economy Fortnight 2024)!
The RECERCO project recovered fired sherds, a form of waste generated when manufacturing ceramic tiles. It proved that it is feasible to use this as a secondary raw material for manufacturing new ceramic tiles and as a reinforcement agent for polymeric matrices to obtain composites for the construction industry.
The Climate Change Summit (CCS), the largest event in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to focus on climate solutions, will bring together leaders in climate innovation, policy, entrepreneurship and government to discuss climate action and green economy opportunities.
Experts will work together to identify local and regional solutions for a sustainable future.
BUILD UP, the European portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings, is hosting the fourth in a series of six webinars organised with the CircularB COST Action project. This one will focus on Building Design Teams and Building Users, Facility Managers and Owners.
