The construction industry in Europe stands at a critical juncture, facing a unique combination of challenges and opportunities that shape its future. As one of the largest and most impactful sectors, construction plays a central role in developing the cities and infrastructure of tomorrow. 

However, its environmental impact is significant: the built environment, driven by construction activities and building use, is responsible for 40% of global CO2 emissions and 40% of global resource use. This makes it a major contributor to the transgression of several planetary boundaries, including Climate Change, Land-System Change, and Biosphere Integrity. 

This case study selection highlights circular practices in the reviewed projects based on the 9R circularity framework, which serves as a set of guiding principles for transforming conventional construction practices into more circular and sustainable ones.

Built Environment: the 9R Strategies

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Business case

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Producing building materials and finished and semi-finished building products for construction

Construction Materials and Products

Give products and parts another life after their end-of-use

Maximise lifetime of products after use

Extraction and reuse of parts from end-of-life products for use in new products

Part recovery

**Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable**

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The pandemic has caused major shifts in migration patterns, including huge movements of people in and out of urban areas. Furthermore, climate change and conflicts tend to have disproportionate impacts on cities. These factors mean that the world is far from achieving the goal of sustainable cities.  
In many developing countries, slum populations have been growing, putting at risk the target of adequate housing for all by 2030. Since 2015, the number of countries with national disaster risk reduction strategies has more than doubled. 

Cities are hubs for ideas, commerce, culture, science, productivity, and social, human and economic development. Urban planning, transport systems, water, sanitation, waste management, disaster risk reduction, access to information, education and capacity-building are all relevant issues to sustainable urban development.

This target entails multiple essential concepts such as disaster risk reduction (DRR) and sustainable transport.

To achieve SDG 11, efforts must focus on strengthening capacities for planning for urban development, improving access to public transportation, and enhancing waste management. 

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-cities-and-human-settlements](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-cities-and-human-settlements)


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11. Sustainable cities and communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

The strategies can include:
- smart manufacturing
- designing for disassembly
- material passports for the building products, etc. 

🏢 Smarter creation and use of products 

The strategies eliminate the waste in the design stage itself.

 The strategies maximise their lifetime and give them a second life (e.g., take back strategies) when applicable.

🏢 Extending the lifespan of products and parts

Maintain, repair and upgrade resources while they are in-use.

More efficient use and/or manufacture of products through the use of fewer natural resources and materials.

🏢 Reduce

Reuse of discarded yet still usable product, for the same purpose, by a different user.

🏢 Reuse

The doors, windows, service installations, and even furniture are flexible compared to the building structure. If dismantled carefully, they can be reused elsewhere for the same or different purposes.

Using discarded products or their parts in new products with a different function.


🏢 Repurpose

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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**These 17 Goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.**

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, and especially on the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York which let to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.

In 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed. A major blueprint came out of this: The Sustainable Development Goals: 17 overarching goals—and 169 targets—that governments are aiming to meet by 2030. Significant progress has been made in terms of poverty, health and inequality, but there's still a way to go. This is where the circular economy comes in: by circulating resources multiple times, the circular economy tackles issues of scarcity and allows all to access what they need—without overburdening the earth. If it's implemented in a holistic way—affording attention to social considerations and the fair distribution of resources— it also offers a pathway for achieving the SDGs; and the link between the two is ever-growing. To read more about the link between the SDGs and the circular economy, click [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/blogs/how-the-circular-economy-can-help-us-reach-the-sustainable-development-goals).

It is the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) which provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues. TheDSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.
Alongside this, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.
In addition, the UN Secretary-General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.

To read more information: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals](https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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This framework surpasses the famous 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). The nine strategies Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, and Recycle and Recover provide a clear and actionable roadmap for a circular transition. 

Strategies at the top of the hierarchy, such as Refuse, Rethink, and Reduce, are the most effective at increasing a construction project's circularity level. These strategies focus on avoiding or minimising resource use and waste from the project's conception.

That is why a clear hierarchy exists where higher-level R strategies are preferred, and lower-level strategies are deemed more linear. 

In the original 9R framework, the last strategy, Recover, is often considered non-circular since it consists of energy recovery from material waste incineration, which is why it was left out of the scope of this case study collection.

They are applied to the built environment sector here as part of the [Realdania ](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.realdania.org/&ved=2ahUKEwiF74KezMyJAxUpUaQEHURhOOEQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0o-XWvSka80KCHtCG6XDS3) project.

🏢 9R Framework

  Parmi les derniers vestiges visibles de la SMN, la Grande Halle (ancien atelier électrique) et la tour réfrigérante symbolisent l’histoire industrielle du Plateau de Colombelles.   Un site en pleine renaissance grâce à la mutation de la Grande Halle en un tiers-lieu circulaire et citoyen, accueillant acteurs économiques et culturels, habitants et artisans, un melting-pot où foisonnent les initiatives créatives !
La démarche engagée dans cette réhabilitation s’ancre dans une philosophie qui questionne les modes conventionnels de construction de la ville, qui pourrait tendre à devenir une norme à moyen terme.
Normandie Aménagement, dans le cadre de ses actions d’aménagement et de promotion immobilière intègre dans ses pratiques prospectives et opérationnelles cette démarche de réflexion, permettant de définir des champs d’application sur des projets ambitieux et complexes.   Le Réemploi de matériau 
Comment faire mieux avec moins ?
Un défi à relever, de nouveaux modes de conception à expérimenter
– Ingénierie de projet tout à fait originale par les équipes de Normandie Aménagement.
– Repenser les schémas de construction traditionnels: le réemploi de matériau.
Un changement radical de principe :
• Pas de fournisseur
• Nouvelle utilisation d’un matériau déjà existant
• Aucune transformation
• Eventuellement un détournement
Des freins ?
• Contrôleur technique /Assureur : Comment s’assurer du bon état des matériaux et en évaluer la fiabilité ?
 L’expérience réussie menée à la cité de chantier par le Collectif ETC et Normandie Aménagement a permis de prouver que cette démarche pouvait se voir expérimentée à grande échelle à la Grande Halle
 Un lot spécifique « Réemploi » a été attribué sur appel d’offre au WIP : identifier des gisements, les répertorier et les implémenter dans les différentes phases du chantier.
Aujourd’hui, l’expérience a montré la faisabilité de la méthode. La grande Halle est une expérience pilote, permettant de démontrer qu’on lot spécifique dédié au réemploi est possible et même duplicable.
Le concept de chantier ouvert :
• Donner à voir l’expertise des entreprises
• Faire accepter le projet – « Conduite du changement »
• Créer du lien et donner envie – Programmation culturelle « Chantier culturel » porté par le WIP
• Permettre à chacun de s’exprimer pendant le chantier et éventuellement intégrer des nouveaux projets
• Vecteur de communication pour le Maître d’Ouvrage / le Maître d’Usage / le Maître d’Oeuvre
• Vecteur de pré-commercialisation pour le Maître d’Ouvrage ou le Maître d’Usage (le WIP)    Le processus est engagé depuis deux ans par Normandie Aménagement qui a construit un bâtiment éphémère en matériaux de réemploi, la Cité de chantier, qui préfigure ce que sera demain la Grande Halle : lieu de travail, de vie, d’expérimentation, ce mini Tiers-lieu géré par l’association Le WIP, sert de support aux initiatives permettant de faire vivre et découvrir ce projet, dans une dynamique de chantier ouvert.
   La réhabilitation de la Grande Halle est assurée sous co-maîtrise d’ouvrage de Normandie Aménagement et de l’EPFN, et grâce au soutien financier du FEDER, de la Région Normandie, de l’EPFN, de la ville de Colombelles, de Normandie Aménagement, de l’Ademe et de la Communauté urbaine Caen la mer.
Montant total des travaux menés par Normandie Aménagement : plus de 7.6 millions d’euros
– 4 450 000 € Communauté urbaine Caen la mer concédant ZAC
– 2 145 000 € EPFN sur Fonds Friches (900 000€ EPFN, 845 000€ Région Normandie, 400 000€ Caen la mer)
– 725 000 € FEDER
– 250 000 € Ville de Colombelles
– 125 000 € ADEME/Région Normandie sur dispositif Defi’Bat   L’opération de réhabilitation de la Grande Halle de Colombelles est cofinancée par l’Union Européenne. L’Europe s’engage en Normandie avec le Fonds européen de développement régional.   
2013 :
Le campus EffiScience représente un pôle d’attractivité économique majeur de l’agglomération caennaise. Normandie Aménagement engage une réflexion sur le futur du secteur, trop cloisonné, qui manque de visibilité :
Penser les fonctions d’habitat et de travail ensemble ;
Offrir de nouveaux espaces de travail complémentaires dans le parcours immobilier de Caen la mer ;
Contribuer au développement économique, social et à l’attractivité du territoire.
2013 – 2014 :
« L’activation du territoire » : Une démarche active de co-construction de la programmation, avec les collectivités, entrepreneurs, associations, citoyens
2015 :
Le cabinet d’architectes Construire remporte l’appel d’offres. Méthode de travail incrémentaliste : mettre le projet de la Grande Halle à l’épreuve d’usages divers et au départ, non-définis, afin d’entamer une approche programmatique.
Les phases de construction sont enrichies grâce au concept de permanence architecturale qui présente trois enjeux majeurs dans ce projet : accueillir, rencontrer, créer des événements. Création de la Cité de chantier pour tester les futurs usages de la Grande Halle :

Un lieu éphémère ;
Préfiguration de la Grande Halle : lieu des mises à l’épreuve des futurs usages ;
Une base pour les actions.

2016 :
Études de conception. Les études de conception sont menées par Normandie Aménagement avec l’équipe d’architectes Encore Heureux issue du Cabinet Construire, futurs commissaires du Pavillon Français de la biennale internationale d’architecture.
Constitution du Wip, futur gestionnaire de la Grande Halle, qui anime la Cité de chantier, et développe le projet économique et social du Tiers-Lieu.  

Colombelles

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Normandie Aménagement

Le Wip

Encore Heureux

<p>The Grande Halle de Colombelles project repurposed a former industrial site in Normandy into a vibrant community hub, serving as a space for cultural, social, and economic activities. Focusing on circular economy principles, the project preserved the existing structure and integrated reclaimed materials from local demolition sites. </p>