Circular economy and the construction industry: Existing trends, challenges and prospective framework for sustainable construction

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) concept has received increasing attention among different parties on various levels recently. Due to the concern on significant resources consumption in the construction industry without concerning the physical limit resources, a paradigm shift of linear economy to CE model is inevitable for conserving the resources and promoting the efficient use of resources. Adopting CE into the construction industry can promote the successful transition to sustainable construction. Although early stage of development in the construction industry, the scientific contribution of CE agenda in the construction industry is significantly increasing. Therefore, this review aimed to identity the implications, considerations, contributions and challenges of CE in the construction industry by systematically analyzing the recent literature. In addition to existing trends and considerations, this study highlighted the numerous challenges under design, materials selection, supply chain, business model, uncertainty and risk, collaborations among actions, knowledge of understanding, relevant policy, integration of urban metabolism, and methodology for CE evaluation. The study found that CE implementation into the case-specific building with full scale evaluation is yet to be conducted, and a comprehensive CE integration and methodology framework is yet to be developed. A prospective integrated framework for CE adoption and evaluation method is proposed by analyzing the contemporary issues. It is believed that the analyzed critical issues for CE adoption, identified future research direction, and proposed frameworks and methodology should help further development of CE research and contribution to effective implementation of CE into the industry for promoting sustainable construction.