Circular Buildings
Context
The Circular Buildings partnership emphasises resource efficiency in the building sector as a key driver for sectoral transformation, fostering innovation and achieving productivity gains in construction. Participating regions from Belgium, France, Portugal, and Bulgaria face common challenges in achieving circularity and managing material flows. These regions also exhibit complementary maturity levels within their respective circular building value chains, providing opportunities for shared learning and collaboration.
The Circular Buildings partnership aligns with the S3 Thematic Platform for Industrial Modernisation through its ambitions to:
- Create market and innovation potential for circular materials,
- Foster the development of new competencies within the sector, and
- Stimulate new value chains and industrial symbiosis.
Year established: 2024
Regions (lead and partner)
- Leading regions: Wallonia (BE)
- Partner region(s): Northern Portugal (PT), South-West Bulgaria (BG), West-Central Bulgaria (BG)
Mission
The S3 strategies of Circular Buildings regions identify circularity in the built environment as a key focus area for achieving low-carbon targets, aligning closely with major EU strategies. Circular Buildings mission is to help Europe establish itself as a leader in circular construction practices that enhance economic, ecological, and social resilience. This vision will be realised by developing sustainable and circular systems throughout the building lifecycle, encompassing the eco-design of materials, the recycling and reuse of resources, and the promotion of new competencies and innovations. Additionally, “Circular buildings” aims to support and strengthen a multi-level network to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing across stakeholders.
Circular Buildings also aspires to develop a close collaboration with other partnerships within the S3CoP network.
Objectives
The Circular Buildings partnership aims:
- To mobilise and connect ecosystems with various maturity levels
- To raise awareness of circular practices and sustainable innovation
- To generate common knowledge assets
- To contribute to regional, national and EU strategies and policies
- To mobilise funding and boost the nr of interregional projects
- To increase the innovation potential of the circular value chain
- To support construction stakeholders in circular transition
- To develop replicable models and capacity-building initiatives
Main activities
The Circular Buildings partnership will focus on the following activities:
- Exchange of best practices, networking and matchmaking: Organising workshops, site visits, and digital platforms for peer learning and collaboration, and other activities and events to facilitate exchange between regions
- Roadmap development: Identifying technological gaps, opportunities, material needs, and relevant stakeholders in the construction sector to advance circularity in building
- Capacity Building: Promoting EU projects and initiatives related to circularity in the built environment, assisting stakeholders in scaling circular economy solutions by building local synergies, providing shared resources and expertise, and connecting them with EU funding proposals to create EU-wide value chains
- Policy Recommendations: Developing guidance to help regional authorities implement circular economy strategies in their construction and urban planning
Organisations involved
Belgium
- GreenWIN (BE)
Bulgaria
Portugal
- Built CoLAB (PT)
Shared smart specialisation areas
The S3 strategies of each participating region recognise construction and the built environment as key focus areas. They highlight several themes that align with circularity in the built environment and low-carbon goals, prioritising the circular economy as essential for energy, ecological, industrial, digital, and social transitions. Each region has set ambitious low-carbon targets and strategies impacting the construction sector.
Related projects
The partners are members of the following European networks and initiatives:
- CO2Value Europe
- CBE-JU
- SusChem
- Built4People Innovation Cluster
- European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP)
- New European Bauhaus (NEB)
- Smart Energy Alliance
- EIT
- Pact for Skills Large Scale Partnership for Construction
- International Cleantech Network
- EU Climate Pact
- EREK
Contact
- Yulia Firsova, GreenWin, yulia.firsova@greenwin.be
- Stéphanie Roosa, GreenWin, stephanie.roosa@greenwin.be
- Vanessa Tavares, BUILT CoLAB, vanessa.tavares@builtcolab.pt
- Rita Mendonça, BUILT CoLAB, rita.mendonca@builtcolab.pt
- Maria Nakova, EDIH in the Construction Sector, m.nakova@edih-construction.bg
- Elitsa Petkova, Cleantech Bulgaria, elitsa@cleantech.bg
Latest news and upcoming events
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