CBCI
Circular Bio-based Construction Industry
Priority Axis
Resource Efficient EconomySpecific objective
Circular Economy
Lead partner
Stichting AvansContact
Start Date
01/03/2019End Date
30/09/2022Project budget
6 969 596 €ERDF amount
4 181 758 €ERDF rate
60%About
Common challenge
The construction industry is a large consumer of resources with 30-50% of total materials used in Europe going to construction. Between 2003 and 2011 approximately 1200-1800 Megaton of construction materials were used yearly in the EU, emitting annually 33% of total CO2 emissions. However, often the components and materials used are not adaptable during their use- and life-cycle, because most building projects are still designed in a linear way, making reuse hard and hence resource efficiency low.
Despite the EU’s wish to move from linear to circular systems, applicable circular approaches are scarce. Especially those coupling the technical and biological cycle with an integral approach of sectoral aspects: technique, economy & finance and framework & regulation. Enabling change towards integral circular bio-based approach in the building sector requires new roles of stakeholders in the building sector (manufacturers, constructors, policy makers, investors, contractors & endusers).
Overall objective
Main outputs
Cross border approach
Main Achievements
The future of the construction industry is circular and bio-based. And the CBCI project is working towards that.
The project officialy started in March 2019. A gradually expanded group of professionals of the ten partners, currently counting almost 60 persons, started with desk research to find key factors that are necessary to speed up the uptake of circular and bio-based construction. This desk research focussed on funding mechanisms, stakeholder needs, new cooperation models, procurement, and rules and regulations, as well as technical specifications of several circular and bio-based materials, and construction systems, resulting in reports of which the content was shared with the whole team.
The findings form input for the living labs of the project and for the testing and prototyping rounds that will take place in the coming years. In several rounds, the project will develop circular bio-based solutions, particularly suitable for utility construction. The project pays specific attention to upscaling to industrial level.
Furthermore, the project started with the preparation of the teaching programmes aimed at professionals as well as students, by preparing the assessments of competences necessary in several disciplines to make circular and bio-based construction possible at large scale.
While the desk research progressed well, circumstances changed at the investing partners in Gent (BE) as well as in Kloetinge (NLD). Both original plans for real-life applications to demonstrate circular and bio-based construction appeared no longer feasible. So, a major modification of the project was necessary. The objective and specific results remain the same; the project still aims to solve current problems in circular bio-based construction industry and develop practical solutions to speed up the uptake. The nature of the outputs, though, slightly changed. The emphasis of the investments in the project no longer entirely lies on renovation, but more on developing new, flexible circular bio-based concepts, that will be suitable for different contexts. At the end of the year, the first sketch designs of the builds were finished.
With regards to communication, in the first project year, focus was on smooth communication internally. A start has been made with the visual identity of the project. In accordance with the developed communication strategy, in the coming years the project will reach out more to the target groups to actively involve them in the project.