Why collaboration and circular economy principles are paramount in the construction sector
Updated: May 27, 2021
According to the European Commission, the built environment requires vast amounts of resources and accounts for about 50% of all extracted material.
The construction sector is responsible for over 35% of total waste generation in the EU.
Greenhouse gas emissions from material extraction, manufacturing of construction products, as well as construction and renovation of buildings are estimated at 5-12% of total national GHG emissions.
A better material efficiency could save 80% of those emissions.
Furthermore, the construction, use and renovation of buildings require significant amounts of energy and mineral resources (e.g. sand, gravel, cement).
Buildings also account for 40% of energy consumed.
Today the annual renovation rate of the building stock varies from 0.4 to 1.2% in the Member States. This rate will have at least to double to reach the EU’s objectives in terms of energy efficiency and climate.
At the same time, 50 million consumers struggle to keep their homes warm enough.
According to Holland Circular Hotspot (HCH) “the Netherlands is vulnerable because it has an energy- and material-intensive export economy, one that will continue to depend heavily on primary raw materials for a considerable time. The Netherlands imports 68 percent of its raw materials.”
The European Green Deal is a set of policy initiated by the European Commission with the aim of making Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent in 2050. With the European Green deal, the European Commission has reaffirmed that “more than at any time before, we need to apply circular economy and resource efficiency principles to buildings to reduce resource use in the future”.
Bressummer Foundation’s mission is to promote and develop leadership that takes responsibility and action for the common good and long-term sustainability of our societies and nature. We see that projects for sustainability and circular economy often slow down significantly because chain partners do not know and appreciate each other sufficiently. In that context, it is difficult to implement solutions and decisions that have a long-time horizon.
At Bressummer, we implement "breakthrough innovations" by developing and executing cutting-edge leadership programs for the food and construction industries. We embrace circularity and sustainability, recognizing that powerful industry change can be achieved only through collaboration.
Sources:
GOMEZ, O. D. C. (2020, octobre 2). Buildings and construction [Text]. Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs - European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/sustainability/built-environment_en
European Green Deal : Construction Products Europe AISBL. (s. d.). Consulté 24 mai 2021, à l’adresse https://www.construction-products.eu/news-events/latest-news/european-green-deal
Home. (s. d.). Holland Circular Hotspot. Consulté 16 mars 2021, à l’adresse https://hollandcircularhotspot.nl/
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