Circular Economy in Commercial Real Estate A Study of the Design Process for Increased Reuse in Redevelopment Projects

The building and construction industry is currently one of the industries with the most significant environmental impact. It is responsible for roughly 100 billion tons of waste yearly. The main reason is that the building and construction industry has traditionally adopted the linear concept of “take-make-waste” where products are discarded long before they have researched their end of life. One promising approach could be to adopt circular processes in line with circular economy principles, aiming to recover and reuse construction products from existing buildings rather than resorting to demolition and disposal. Therefore, this thesis aimed to research how the introduction of circular processes in redevelopment projects affects the design process and how to facilitate this transition. The research was conducted in collaboration with Sweco and entailed 15 qualitative interviews covering both pilots and more ordinary routine projects in commercial real estate. The research concludes that reuse in the Swedish building and construction industry is still at an early stage. Large-scale reuse implementation is mainly hindered by the fragmented market since sourcing reuse from other projects then becomes both time-consuming and unreliable. Besides, there are no set routines and methods for approaching reuse in redevelopment projects. The study revealed effects on the design process by introducing reuse practices, which resulted in three models. One provides an overview of the changed design process with guidance for when additional activities related to reuse should be performed, and the second proposes a step-by-step process for conducting inventories and setting project goals related to reuse. The third model suggests an order of prioritization for reuse actions in redevelopment projects. Following this, results suggest that on-site reuse within the property and, in some cases, just-in-time reuse from the local area can be profitable. This points to a significant future potential for off-site reuse, sourced from other projects, to become increasingly profitable as the market matures and logistical solutions are established.

Department dc:contributor.department

Chalmers tekniska högskola / Institutionen för arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik (ACE)

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Authors dc:creator

• HOLMÉN, IDA
• ANGERVALL, SIMON

• Circular Economy in Commercial Real Estate A Study of the Design Process for Increased Reuse in Redevelopment Projects

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12380/306897

OAI record oai:identifier

https://odr.chalmers.se/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Aodr.chalmers.se%3A20.500.12380%2F306897