Towards Circular Social Housing: An Exploration of Practices, Barriers, and Enablers

Abstract

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) and its application in the built environment is an emerging research field. Scholars approach CE from various perspectives covering a wide range of topics from material innovation to city-scale application. However, there is little research on CE implementation in housing stock, particularly that which is managed or owned by the social housing organisations (SHOs) and which offers opportunities to generate circular flows of materials at the portfolio level. This research focuses on Dutch SHOs and uses the Delphi method to examine CE practices in their asset management, as well as the main barriers to and potential enablers of its uptake. The analysis of two iterative rounds of expert questioning indicates that Dutch SHOs are in the early experimental phase in CE implementation. From the results, it is evident that organisational, cultural, and financial barriers are the most pressing ones that hinder the wider adoption of CE in their asset management. Building on the panel input, this study suggests potential enablers to overcome these barriers, such as CE legislation, best practice case studies, commitment and support from the top management, and the creation of a clear business case.

From circular strategies to actions: 65 European circular building cases and their decarbonisation potential

“…CE strategies have been summarised under four categories of principles: narrowing resource loops (i.e., using fewer resources per product), slowing resource loops (i.e., keeping products in use as long as possible), closing resource loops (i.e., recycling materials) and regenerating resource loops (i.e., using renewable resources and regenerating the natural environment) ( Bocken et al., 2016 ; Konietzko et al., 2020 ; McDonough and Braungart, 2010 ; Stahel, 2010 ). In recent years, many studies have explored how CE strategies can be applied to buildings, henceforth referred to as ‘circular building strategies’ ( Çetin et al., 2021 ; Eberhardt et al., 2020 ; Guerra et al., 2021 ; Malmqvist et al., 2018 ; Pomponi and Moncaster, 2016 ). These studies have identified various strategies relevant to different life cycle stages of buildings.…”

“…In recent years, circular building strategies have been applied and tested in numerous building projects in practice (e.g., Upcycle Studio, Circle House, etc.). Applying circular building strategies in practice faces many barriers ( Bilal et al., 2020 ; Çetin et al., 2021 ; Guerra et al., 2021 ; Hart et al., 2019 ) and requires significant innovation efforts to meet the functional, aesthetic, financial, process, and legal requirements in building development, construction, and management ( Hart et al., 2019 ). One barrier to initiating such innovation efforts has been a lack of knowledge regarding the environmental performance and related benefits of the various strategies ( Andersen et al., 2020 ; De Wolf et al., 2020 ; Eberhardt et al., 2020 ).…”

“…By reviewing real-world building cases only, rather than scenarios or models, the present study aims to reveal applications of circular building strategies with a higher level of maturity that are usable in practice. We also include the regeneration strategy as an emerging and important resource approach, in addition to slowing, closing and narrowing the resource loops ( Bocken and Geradts, 2022 ; Çetin et al., 2021 ; Konietzko et al., 2020 ). The narrower geographic focus (i.e., Europe-wide) and assessment level (i.e., building and product level) of the reviewed studies are considered useful to create a more homogenous sample for comparison, as also suggested by Gallego-Schmid et al.…”

Analyzing the Attractiveness of Businesses to Receive Investments for a Creative and Innovative Transition to a Circular Economy: The Case of the Textile and Fashion Industry

“…By the same dynamics, since companies need to invest in the transition process, the economic aspects appear as obstacles (O3), but they can be understood as catalysts when there are financial resources available or cost reductions (C8) [21,40,41,45,46,50,52]. This point further justifies studies on the attractiveness of businesses to receive investments.…”

Determinants of an effective digital transformation in construction organisations: a qualitative investigation

“…Although benefits may shape a drive, determinants beyond what is perceived as technical and innovation-oriented may aid a digital transformation from within an organisation (Zulu and Khosrowshahi, 2021). Generally, scholars echo the complications and ambiguities behind driving innovations in the construction context (Akinade et al ., 2020; Çetin et al ., 2021). This becomes even more evident with the lack of a rationale that justifies innovation adoption (Newton and Newman, 2015).…”