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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Policy case

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

Ecological Impact

Contributing to the improvement of biodiversity including species diversity, total number of protected species, and ecosystem health

Biodiversity

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

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

**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

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

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.

The strategies usually require technical equipment and energy inputs to create a new value.

🏢 Useful application of materials

The strategies are applied to building products labeled ‘waste’ by the industry.

Turning a product redundant by cancelling its function, or by substituting it with a radically different product.

🏢 Refuse

Intensifying product use (e.g. via product sharing or multifunctional products).



🏢 Rethink

Replace typical brick and mortar wall with a dry-stacked wall with interlocking bricks will limit the amount of mortar required and ease the deconstruction efforts at the end of service life for the subsequent use.

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.

Processing of materials to achieve the original high-quality or reduce to low-quality.



🏢 Recycle

Currently, the best practice worldwide for dealing with concrete and brick debris is to recycle it. The debris is collected, transported, manually or mechanically sorted, washed, crushed, and recycled into new building materials and products.

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

Beyond sustainabilityThe municipality of Venlo commissioned Kraaijvanger to design its new stadskantoor (council offices). With 630 flexible workplaces and public functions, the building embodies the ambition to have the entire city and region function on the basis of Cradle to Cradle (C2C) principles.Humans firstWellbeing is the starting point: a good building makes people happier and boosts productivity. The spatial design is based on three goals:The design includes an organic kitchen with a restaurant situated at the heart of the tower. Along with the spiral staircase system in the atrium, this encourages the use of the stairs. The parking garage with its green voids and building cooling system is the foundation on which the meeting functions are organized from the street level upward.Around a patio with a helophyte filter for water purification, people can enjoy the greenery, the water and the views. A political café, a public hall with exhibition spaces, a wedding room, meeting and consultation rooms, a coffee bar, a theatre with stand, a city shop and the service functions are all located on the first two floors.Based on the open-house concept, which allows everyone to come and work in this part of the complex, the building connects people and staff. The offices are located on the floors above, in a secure zone in the tower. The complex comprises a single three-dimensional work environment: everything is connected to everything.The building refers to the agricultural tradition of this Limburg city and its top floor features a greenhouse with seasonal workplaces and room to grow regional products that also heats and humidifies the air that enters the building.The green air-purifying façade is the largest green building façade in the world and forms a protective shell against traffic and railway pollution. The glass window in the green façade offers a view into the heart of the building – the interior is visible from the inner city, in keeping with the transparency of democracy.The realization of the new stadskantoor presented an extraordinary opportunity to utilize C2C and circular ideas in a public building of considerable size – and thus to help spread these ideas. During this process, Kraaijvanger devoted a considerable part of its resources to sharing knowledge with partners and stakeholders in order to break new ground. Introducing a system of material passports made it possible to continue to innovate during construction. The passport records exactly what goes into the building. The contractor and producers are challenged to come up with innovative new products that are better than those described in the specifications. The ultimate target is to give the precious raw materials used in the building a new life without compromising on quality.The building purifies air through the ‘green lung’ façade, recycles rainwater and waste water, is energy neutral and promotes wellbeing. In addition, the building produces no waste: it is in fact a temporary raw materials bank with guaranteed residual values for a number of products. The building’s green façade creates (bio)diversity: like a vertical city park, it is a natural biotope for more than 100 plants, animals and insect species.The base includes functions that create added value for the entire city, such as a café with theatre facilities, open workspaces on the ground and first floor, and a beautiful garden with helophyte filters. During this project, numerous producers and suppliers acquired C2C certifications for their products and the project thus demonstrably stimulates the transition to the economically profitable principle of the C2C production of goods. The design has won several architectural awards, including the ambitious international Architizer + Award in the category government buildings.The air in Venlo’s new city hall is purer than the air outside and purifies air in a 500m radius around the building. Cradle to cradle principles and holistic thinking in action in a city's buildings.Ellen MacArthur FoundationArchitizer A+ Awards 2017 - winner category overheidsgebouwen,Plan Award 2017, winner category Office & BusinessWAN Sustainable Buildings Awards 2017 - nominated Shortlist,2017 Shaw Contract Design Awards,10th Annual International Color Awards 2017, Honourable Mention,Green Building Solutions Award 2016 - finalist,Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Award 2016,Green Building Solutions Award 2016 - Honourable Mention,Wood in architecture 2016 - nominated longlist,project detailsnameCity hall Venlobuilt2012 - 2016locationVenlodesign2009 - 2011clientMunicipality of VenloteamHans Goverde, Vincent van der Meulen, Annemiek Bleumink, Jan-Hein Franken, Hiroko Kawakami, Anja Mueller, Edward Timmermans, Bart van der WerfGFA27,700 sqm

Venlo

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Municipality of Venlo

Kraaijvanger

Veldhoen & Company

WSM Constructeurs

Municipality of Heythuysen

Royal HaskoningDHV

BBN Consultants

Municipality of Houten

<p>Venlo’s new City Hall, built with an investment of €53 million, exemplifies Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) and circular construction principles. Equipped with innovative features like a rainwater management system, reusable materials, and the largest green facade in the world, the project showcases the long-term economic and environmental benefits of C2C practices while regenerating its urban setting.</p>