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Management Summary

The construction industry is responsible for around 50% of the raw materials extraction from nature and also 50% of the waste generated in the world. In the linear economy, most of the industries are exploiting resources from the Earth, and not giving back anything but waste which do not contribute in the regeneration of our systems. Therefore, the construction industry requires to have a transition towards a circular economy where no more resources are taken from natural streams and no more waste is generated. To be able to achieve this, innovative approaches need to be taken. Furthermore, following the need of adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Dutch government has started a plan to trigger the change to circular solutions.

One innovative approach towards the transition to the circular economy is the development of new procurement models that enable the change from a linear perspective to a circular and sustainable perspective. The objective of this project was to design a comprehensive and practical Circular Procurement Framework and Tool which considers the circularity principles as core element to pursue the transition. By doing this, organizations will be able to incorporate this new practices into their procurement processes which will foster the development of sustainable solutions in the construction sector creating a positive change in the industry.

During the development of this project, it was identified the need of having clear definitions to understand and create feasible ambitions in the circularity approach. Moreover, it was necessary to review what are the main barriers in the adoption of this new model in order to create channels to help the different stakeholders from the industry to adapt to the change. This was performed in order to create a clear definition that encompasses the ambitions of the Province of Zeeland that is feasible to follow in their future construction projects by overcoming possible barriers that hinder the transition. For the progression of the project, the following definition of Circular Economy in the Built Environment was used: a restorative and regenerative economic model, which aims to provide solutions to sustainability related problems by maintaining the highest possible value and utility to all the components and materials that construct the system where they belong. This is achieved by a stronger control of finite raw materials exploitation and by optimizing and reducing the production of construction and demolition waste which can be undertaken if its lifespan is prolonged and its value is kept within the built environment system or another system following the R’s strategies. All of this needs to be considered with the premise that the development of the system will not harm but will preserve the sustainability pillars (society, environment and finances).

As part of the barriers, the main identified were the lack of clear definitions, lack of evaluation standards, low availability of circular goods and services and poor knowledge of suppliers. This meant that with the creation of a framework that aims to fulfill the aforementioned definition, suppliers will be able to create streams for the development of knowledge that will foster the development of new business models that provide circular goods and services. The procurement phase of a project is seen as an opportunity to create knowledge between all the stakeholders of a construction project in order to think of new possibilities to provide solutions that are more sustainable following the circularity principles in the sector of construction.

Furthermore, an analysis of six existing building circularity measurement frameworks was performed. These frameworks were Platform CB’23, Madaster, Alba Concepts, W/E Adviseurs, BREEAM Circular Building and OneClickLCA. This was to understand the current practices taken for the evaluation of building circularity in the Netherlands with the different approaches to its measurement. It was possible to find a link between the definition of circularity used and the approach they followed. The need to perform this was firstly to understand manners in which it is already measured but also to create a way in which they can be adapted for procurement practices with the creation of a Circular Procurement Framework and Tool that combined the different approaches. It was identified a lack of transparency in the results of the different frameworks and a lack of traceability to understand certain results. This resulted in the idea of creating a framework that has open results from different categories to create awareness on the designers of the project on which ways to perform better with the perspective of circularity and use of biobased.

Lastly, the designed Circular Procurement Framework and Tool was tested in a case proposed by the Province of Zeeland. This case was the Veldstation Seaftinghe which is a bird watch facility built in the Seaftinghe natural region of the province. Since the solution to this project was designed to have a good circularity performance, it Eindhoven University of Technology EngD. in Smart Buildings & Cities Project: Circularity Zeeland Author: Eduardo López Almanza was needed to create five new scenarios to be able to replicate the procurement process in which several designs are evaluated. This resulted in a useful approach to understand the performance of the Circular Procurement Framework and Tool in an interesting case.

The Circular Procurement Framework and Tool was designed to provide flexibility and adaptation considering the diverse needs of the Province of Zeeland. It can help the province to set certain bars of the expected circularity performance of new projects in a first stage of the real use of the framework. It gives the importance to the collaboration between parties promoting transparency enabling a learning process throughout the process. Once the involved stakeholders generate knowledge, these bars can be risen to have each time more sustainable, circular-biobased solutions for construction projects within the built environment of the Province of Zeeland.

The result of this project demonstrates feasibility and potential of the integration of circularity principles in the procurement process for projects within the Built Environment of the Province of Zeeland. Therefore, this project contributes in the implementation of the circular economy in the construction sector from an early phase of the projects helping the stakeholders in the learning process towards the adoption of more sustainable solutions.

At the end of this project, the report provides with valuable information regarding the limitations of the designed framework and opportunities to further develop it. This project expects to be a booster in the modification of the construction industry to create opportunities during the transition to the circular-biobased construction practices.

Funded by: Provincie Zeeland