The construction industry is among the sectors that need closer attention due to their environmental impact. The Circular Economy (CE) model promotes the transition to more sustainable production models, which are based on careful management of resources and the reduction of negative externalities generated by such businesses. Its application in this industry can foster significant improvements in sustainability. However, the measurement of the degree of implementation of CE is difficult, owing to an absence of psychometrically sound measures. In this paper, the development of the CE scale for the building industry was described, treated as an instrument that allows for a direct measurement of the importance of CE for companies. The processes used to generate items by applying the e-Delphi research technique were explained in the article, and the developed scale was tested and validated through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The final construction is composed of seven different weighted dimensions: four related to Resource Management: 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle), Efficient Management of Energy, Water, and Materials; two dimensions regarding environmental impact: Emissions and Wastes generated; and, one providing indicators of transition to the CE.

Nowadays, an omnipresent problem of resource scarcity and a need for reduction of waste generation make a discussion about eco-friendly production models more serious than ever before. Actions leading to a long-term sustainability of the Earth should not be treated as fashion but as normal practice no matter what branch they concern. A building sector is one of the world's largest waste generators. Fortunately, the Circular economy (CE) can help to diminish an environmental impact of the construction industry. Remembering the business principle what gets measured gets done, there is a need to create new measures of CE thinking in construction companies. These can be helpful in the assessment of the degree to which CE is implemented in the entities. However, so far there have been no scales of such measurement.The article presents two approaches; deterministic and probabilistic. First approach is responsible for the calculation of total performance of the company in terms of CE on the basis of inputs given by experts. Second method allows calculating the probability of the construction enterprise maturity in terms of CE and thus reliability of the deterministic estimation of this indicator thanks to the Monte Carlo simulations. The scale is based on an analysis of five phases of construction projects: design, production of building materials, construction processes, maintenance and end-of-life. Then, three levels of consideration are proposed in the model: organization, process, and workgroup. Results show that the scale can be useful for measuring the circularity thinking in the construction sector.

No abstract