CPEA EU Green Week Event Summary
The CPEA EU Green Week Partner workshop expert speakers provided participants with valuable insights into how the transition from linear to circular thinking and practice needs to be accelerated. The workshop identified three core elements to accelerate this transition.
- Changing aesthetic perceptions around materials
Large-scale public acceptance of and demand for recycled and reused construction materials are a key prerequisite for mainstreaming circularity in the built environment. Yet, promoting the use of second-hand materials is often still hampered by aesthetic prejudices in our part of the world which is why the concepts of “rebeauty and lovabilty” in relation to (re-)used building materials and components constitute core elements of successfully changing mindsets and embedding circularity principles in design and construction.
- Increasing durability and longevity through new product and design approaches
Increasing the durability and longevity of buildings and materials will greatly contribute to making the sector more circular. New product and design approaches – both regarding biological and technical cycles – are needed to improve adaptability and flexibility to make buildings (and their components ) stand the test of time in terms of resilience and changing user preferences and needs.
- Data, data, data
Progress on market transformation from linear towards circular construction and real estate is largely dependent on the availability of reliable whole-life cycle building data.
CPEA has been talking to two of the CPEA EU Green Week Partner panelists, Bernadette Soust Verdaguer from the University of Sevilla Spain and Pablo Van den Bosch, Founder of the Madaster platform in the Netherlands about practical data gathering and storage approaches that can help market participants to adopt more consistent – and better quality – data capture and management across sectoral activities. Bernadette Soust Verdaguer Pablo Van den Bosch
CPEA: For a number of years the idea of digital Building Passports, often also being referred to as Digital Building Logbooks (DBLs) has gained traction amongst built environment stakeholders and policy-makers as an effective way to address the persisting sectoral data gaps. Bernadette, as member of the GBC España Circular Economy Working Group you are actively involved in the development of the Spanish Building Passport – what are the respective concrete plans and activities of the Spanish authorities?
Bernadette: At the moment, the Spanish authorities are focused on the renovation of existing buildings and how to increase the number of buildings refurbished with improved energy efficiency performance and reduced operational impacts. However, the Building Passport proposal of the GBC España Circular Economy work group goes beyond this. We think that the current plans are necessary, but that we also need to think about how we can include other aspects such as decarbonisation, covering operational and embodied impacts to integrate the circular economy within current sectoral practices.
CPEA: Pablo, you are the founder of Madaster, an online registry for building materials and products. On the organisational website, Madaster is described as the digital library of materials and there is also mention of a Madaster Passport. So, how does Madaster work?
Pablo: The Madaster platform is a unique, innovative, disruptive online cloud platform providing the user a ‘one stop access point’ to leverage their property data to meet and exceed their environmental, regulatory, health and financial driven ambitions across the full lifecycle of the object. In other words: property developers, owners, and/or operators can create a digital twin of their object in our platform and share, manage this data in the form of asset data, product data or material data. Madaster also automatically processes the files from BIM software and enriches them with data from other public and non-public sources.
CPEA: Bernadette, in practical terms, how can Building Passports help to embed circularity principles in construction and real estate?
Bernadette: We think that Building Passports offer great potential for embedding circularity by integrating information about the building that can be used to extend its life cycle, enable a more efficient use of materials, e.g. through the use of reclaimed or recovered materials, help to plan and organise maintenance and renovation cycles, and ultimately reduce the consumption of resources.
CPEA: Pablo, how does the Madaster Platform support circularity in construction and real estate?
Pablo: Madaster supports circularity by making transparent and visible what materials and products are used and will become available in the future. The more information available, the bigger the chance that reuse can be facilitated, and waste can be eliminated.
CPEA: Who would be typical Madaster users?
Pablo: Typical users would be owners of assets, such as buildings, infrastructure, or other construction types who use the platform for registration and documentation. But also a wide variety of stakeholders who are involved with those assets use the platform too. Examples of those stakeholders are designers and architects, engineers, construction builders, financing institutions (like banks), consultants and product manufacturers. Madaster also supports other platforms and software tools to connect their solutions to the Madaster platform.
CEPEA: Bernadette, how can the introduction of Building Passports support local government in relation to their circularity efforts?
Bernadette: Probably the most promising aspect of the use of Building Passports for local authorities is the harmonisation regarding the use of the information that can help the user to take better decisions aligned with circularity concepts by also integrating information about the materials used. Thus, if these type of tools are implemented in all new and existing buildings, the possibility of reusing, reclaiming, upcycling and recycling building materials would become easier to implement by local authorities. Building Passports also offer the opportunity for direct user engagement and raising user awareness around resource efficiency and circularity issues across the building life cycle.
CPEA: Pablo, how would the Madaster Passport relate to Building Passports?
Pablo: Madaster covers the logbook requirements with respect to static data. Censoring or user data, e.g. operational energy consumption, is not covered by Madaster and needs to be linked to other registrations, such as Building Passports.
CPEA: Have you seen a change in demand for the services Madaster is offering?
Pablo: Yes! We see a growing request to support the large variation of European guidelines to register assets, materials and product data. By supporting these variations in our platform, our European and or global clients do not have to adjust their registration per market which increases their efficiency.
CPEA: Bernadette, what are the next steps for the work of GBC España in relation to Building Passports?
Bernadette: The members of the GBC España Circular Economy Working Group are in the process of preparing a position paper putting forward ideas and relevant issues that we think the tool should address to ensure the inclusion of circularity principles. We are also considering its adaptation to the Spanish context. At the moment, the proposal is close to being circulated and published on the net. We hope that it can contribute to enriching the discussion and support the transition towards a more circular model in the building sector in Spain.
CPEA: Thank you both for sharing your insights!