Exploring environmental benefits of reuse and recycle practices: A circular economy case study of a modular building

Minunno, Roberto; O’Grady, Timothy; Morrison, Gregory M.; Gruner, Richard L.

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104855

Cited by 172 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…[18] assessed and compared the environmental impacts of different structural composite floor systems and found out that one that was designed for disassembly was identified as the most environmentally friendly compared to the conventional scenario. These positive results have been further supported by Minunno et al [4] who found out that a building designed for disassembly allows for reusing 62% of its mass, which will result in a reducing 88% of the emissions.…”

Section: Real-life Ce Implementation and Case-studiesmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…However, economic progress has led to significant environmental damage, and the construction industry accounts for 33% of greenhouse gas emissions, 40% of resource consumption, and 40% of waste generation [2]. Former sustainability-related practices have come short in terms of managing the end-of-life scenario of resources by mainly focusing on recycling rather than adopting a holistic approach that would enable more significant environmental benefits [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Implementing Circular Economy Strategies in Buildings—From Theory to Practice

Rahla

Mateus

Bragança

2021

ASI

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Population growth, along with a rapid urban expansion, is imposing a heavy pressure on the planet’s finite resources. It is widely acknowledged that the building industry consumes large amounts of raw materials while generating waste and emissions. To set apart economic growth from environmental repercussions, the Circular Economy (CE) arose as an innovative paradigm that can offer a fast-track towards a sustainable built environment. This paper will tackle a research gap that academia and policymakers often highlighted, which is how can we apply CE to assets that are predominantly meant to be demolished and their resources wasted when they reach their end-of-life. Globally, the paradigm aims at erasing the waste concept, relying on renewable and regenerative sources, and keeping the materials, components, and systems in use at their highest value as long as possible. The concept’s implementation would attempt to consider the built environment as a closed-loop system wherein resources are viewed as a scarce commodity. Although the CE seems straightforward, translating the circular thinking to the building level might be a hardship. The following paper will attempt to shed light on how to promote CE in buildings that will ultimately lead to healthier, more efficient, and more sustainable cities on a broader scale. The proposed framework considers CE implementation strategies throughout the building’s lifecycle and mainly deals with three innovative aspects: wise resource management, building design approaches, and digitalization of the building industry. In this sense, this study will explore these game-changing factors that are considered paramount to concretize the concept in practice and provide a smooth pathway for CE uptake in buildings.

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Section: Real-life Ce Implementation and Case-studiesmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Circular Economy Strategies in Buildings—From Theory to Practice

Rahla

Mateus

Bragança

2021

ASI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Another important aspect is layering components and building parts according to their expected lifespan [106,107]. In this review, four publications identified the savings potential in environmental impacts on designing concrete structures [108] and steel structures [109][110][111] for disassembly. All found that there is impact savings to be gained, however, it is highly dependent on the number of reuse cycles and the service life of components [108].…”

Section: Design For Disassemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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The building sector is responsible for extensive resource consumption and waste generation, resulting in high pressure on the environment. A way to potentially mitigate this is by including environmental considerations during building design through the concept known as eco-design. Despite the multiple available approaches of eco-design, the latter is not easily achieved in the building sector. The objective of this paper is to identify and discuss what barriers are currently hindering the implementation of eco-design in the building sector and by which measures building designers can include environmental considerations in their design process. Through a systematic literature review, several barriers to implementation were identified, the main ones being lack of suitable legislation, lack of knowledge amongst building designers, and lack of suitable tools for designers to use. Furthermore, two specific tools were identified that allow the inclusion of environmental consideration in building design, along with nine design strategies providing qualitative guidance on how to potentially minimize energy and material consumption, as well as waste generation. This paper contributes a holistic overview of the major barriers to and existing tools and method for the eco-design of buildings, and provides guidance for both future research and practice.

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“…Circular economy (CE), or the 3R principle-Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle [3]-offers a circular perspective. It embraces a cradle-to-cradle view [4,5] and many scholars believe that reusing is better than recycling because it extends product life, reduces waste, slows down production processes, reduces the carbon footprint associated with reproduction, and enhances the product utility [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-Commerce to Ensure Circular Economy from Consumer Perspective

Arman

Mark‐Herbert

2021

Sustainability

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Responsible consumption practice is crucial to minimizing waste as part of sustainable development (SDG 12). This can be achieved by extending product life in a cradle-to-cradle system as part of a circular economy. However, are consumers willing to extend product life by reusing materials? The phenomenon of re-commerce, where consumers sell products to each other (C2C), takes place in physical as well as web-based markets. This project focuses on enabling factors for re-commerce practices on Facebook among consumers in Bangladesh. A review of existing literature provided grounds for an empirical focus group study of Bangladeshi consumers. Using a social practice theory perspective in a thematic analysis shows that enabling factors in terms of technical competence, context-bound conditions influencing meanings such as socially accepted procedures, and practical practices relating to materials such as payment forms and logistics support, all serve as enabling or hindering factors. The study contributes to the understanding of conditions for re-commerce practices as part of a circular economy system where consumers are encouraged to engage in responsible consumption by extending product life cycles.

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Exploring environmental benefits of reuse and recycle practices: A circular economy case study of a modular building

Cited by 172 publications

References 72 publications

Implementing Circular Economy Strategies in Buildings—From Theory to Practice

Implementing Circular Economy Strategies in Buildings—From Theory to Practice

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

Re-Commerce to Ensure Circular Economy from Consumer Perspective

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