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Purpose:The built environment is a key sector for the transition towards a so-called circular economy, contributing to solve the global environmental challenges humanity is facing. As buildings interact with other sectors like transport and energy, a systemic approach is needed to assess the environmental relevance of circular economy practices. The purpose of this study is to develop and test an approach for the evaluation of overall environmental performance of urban projects. Methods: Combining Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) and Life CycleAssessment (LCA) indicators allows relating means (material recovery) and performance (protection of human health, biodiversity and resources). Results and discussion:The study shows the ability of LCA to evaluate circular economy practices at the scale of an urban project. It also highlights its limitation and the research needs to improve eco-design LCA tools for instance on resource depletion evaluation and biogenic carbon. Results show that the MCI, one of the main circular indicators in use today, and MFA provide interesting information complementary to LCA at the project scale but are unable to evaluate the environmental performance of circular practices.Conclusions: Circularity indicators are complementary to LCA indicators and should not replace them in the eco-design process. Rather than setting circularity targets, it is advisable to set environmental targets in a program so that designers use circularity combined with other means to reach these targets in a systemic way.The choice and implementation of environmentally-sound circular actions and strategies are at stake.

Over the last decade, the concept of the circular economy (CE) has gained momentum among practitioners, politicians, and scholars because of its promise of achieving sustainability goals. However, there is still a need to demonstrate and assess the positive environmental impacts of the CE. With respect to the building sector, the CE is still a relatively new topic. To date, research has tended to focus primarily on the macro-scale (cities or eco-parks) and the micro-scale (manufactured products or construction materials). Nevertheless, the often- neglected built environment is also expected to play a crucial role in the transition towards a CE due to its high contribution to various environmental burdens. This paper contributes to this growing area of research by reviewing four cases of ‘circular neighbourhood’ projects in Europe. First, a conceptual framework analysis is defined and applied to the cases. Second, CE initiatives and actions are identified and classified using interviews and document analysis. Third, the use of assessment tools within these CE projects is investigated. The results demonstrate a diverse representation of the CE paradigm and the growing role played by the assessment tools.

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