Digital Technologies and Circular Economy in the Construction Sector: A Review of Lifecycle Applications, Integrations, Potential, and Limitations (Feb 2025)

• Authors: Cagla Keles, Fernanda Cruz Rios. and Simi Hoque
• Description: "Through a systematic literature review, this study identified ten key digital technologies to enable circularity in the building sector: building information modeling, spatial data acquisition, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Internet of Things, blockchain, digital twin, augmented and virtual realities, digital platform/marketplace, material passports, and additive manufacturing and digital fabrication. In this study, we review current applications, discuss their integrations, match digital technology opportunities with circular economy barriers, and map the digital technologies applications along a building’s lifecycle."
• Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/4/553

Structural design using reclaimed wood – A case study and proposed design procedure (Sept 2023)

• Authors: Dan Bergsagel, Felix Heisel
• Description: "This paper describes the implementation of new processes that allow designers to account for variability in the dimension and mechanical properties of reclaimed wood in a case study design-build project on the Cornell University campus in 2022." 
• Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652623024745

Structural Steel Reuse as a Cost-Effective Carbon Mitigation Strategy (June 2023)

• Authors: Juliana Berglund-Brown
• Description: "This thesis establishes more certainty about the supply of steel elements, quantifies potential carbon and cost savings, and identifies the variables that most impact such savings to better enable designing steel frames. This work first provides the context and terminology to connect structural systems to circular economy and reuse, and then outlines why reusing gravity beams and columns is particularly advantageous via a state-of-the-art overview of the steel value-chain."
•  Link: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/151575

FutureBuilt Zero - A simplified dynamic LCA method with requirements for low carbon emissions from buildings (Sept 2022)

• Authors: Eirik Resch, Marianne Kjendseth Wiik, Lars Tellnes, Inger Andresen, Eivind Selvig, and Stein Stoknes
• Description: "FutureBuilt is a voluntary program for ambitious low-carbon construction projects. To incentivize measures that lead to the lowest climate change impact from all aspects of buildings and according to national Paris agreement pledges, FutureBuilt Zero introduces an ambition level and a novel calculation methodology for net climate change impacts over the life of a building."
• Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363543846_FutureBuilt_Zero_-_A_simplified_dynamic_LCA_method_with_requirements_for_low_carbon_emissions_from_buildings

Barriers, success factors, and perspectives for the reuse of construction products in Norway (Jan 2022)

• Authors: Katrin Knoth, Selamawit Mamo Fufa, and Erlend Seilskjær
• Description: "The objective of this paper is to provide an insight into experiences and perspectives of professional actors involved in projects with a focus on reuse in Norway. A series of interviews with manufacturers, architects, contractors, environmental consultants, and public institutions was conducted to (i) identify barriers and success factors for reuse in pilot projects, (ii) capture the issues that seem most pressing for different actors, (iii) identify which actors in the value chain need to be more included into reuse processes, and (iv) define and prioritise necessary actions to advance reuse in Norway."
• Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652622001378

Sustainable reuse of post-war architecture through life cycle assessment (June 2021)

• Author: Lori Ferriss
• Description: "This paper presents two case studies involving the reuse of undergraduate residence halls [from the mid-twentieth century]. The first illustrates the substantial total carbon savings from restoration and reuse. The second proposes an analysis-based methodology for designing retrofits that optimize carbon payback of targeted interventions.
• Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13556207.2021.1943260?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstract

Life Cycle Analysis of the Deconstruction of Military Barracks: Ft. McClellan, Anniston, AL (Nov 2006)

• Authors: Elizabeth O’Brien, Bradley Guy, and Angela Stephenson Lindner
• Description: "Nearly 2.5 million ft2 of barracks must be removed from military facilities throughout the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 4. While integration of manual deconstruction with traditional mechanical demolition methods
  has been shown to be comparable to traditional demolition methods in terms of cost and time requirements, the life
  cycle impacts of manual deconstruction on the environment and public health are unknown. To this end, life cycle assessment was applied to extend previous deconstruction studies of barracks at Ft. McClellan in Anniston, Alabama."
• Link: https://www.scienceopen.com/document_file/8efdb643-38c6-48f0-b007-5955eff4c420/API/i1943-4618-1-4-166.pdf

The Use of Salvaged Structural Materials in New Construction (2002)

• Author: Mark D. Webster, P.E.
• Description: "The intent of this paper is to encourage the salvage of structural materials. The author reviews (1) techniques for evaluating the properties of salvaged brick, wood, and steel; (2) obstacles to their use such as code restrictions and contamination; (3) approaches to overcoming these obstacles; and (4) reuse options. Example projects illustrate the successful use of each salvaged material. 
• Link: https://se2050.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Webster-The-Use-of-Salvaged-Structural-Materials-in-New-Construction.pdf

Framing Lumber from building removal: How Do We best Utilize this Untapped structural resource? (2013)

• Author: Robert H. Falk, Steven Cramer, and James Evans 
• Description: " In spite of the environmental attractiveness of reclaimed lumber, its widespread acceptance is hampered because it is not formally recognized in our grading or engineering design standards. This causes confusion for consumers, builders, and building officials, both in the marketplace as well as at the jobsite. In this article, possible alternatives for recognizing and accommodating reclaimed lumber in lumber grading and wood engineering design standards are provided. 
• Link: https://www.fpl.fs.usda.gov/documnts/pdf2013/fpl_2013_falk001.pdf

BLOX HUB: Circular Built Environment Network 

• Authors: Various studies and papers
• Description: "This network consists of two Grand Solutions projects and 15 industrial Ph.D. projects. The network will create new knowledge and share their learnings with each other, the BLOXHUB community, and the industry as such. All the projects share a vision of contributing to a shift from the conventional construction industry to a circular resource economy."
• Link: https://bloxhub.org/circular-built-environment-network/

Waste Heritage Research: Deconstruction, Salvage, and Re-Use 

• Authors: Various studies and papers
• Description: "A constantly updated list of articles, books, chapters, conference proceedings, reports and theses, mainly in English, with some French and German. Links will be added as they become available."
• Link: https://wasteheritageresearch.wordpress.com/resources/reference-list/

University of Minnesota Capstone projects focused on the built environment: Sustainable Material Management in Minnesota's Built Environment: Economic, environmental, and community impact framework for assessing demolition, deconstruction, and restoration of a building

• Description: "Construction and demolition (C&D) materials constitute a large portion of Minnesota’s waste stream. These materials offer an economic and environmental opportunity if they reenter the market as a raw material according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which reports that the recycling and reuse of C&D material generates jobs, wages, taxes, and mitigates carbon emissions more than any other material stream (Delta Institute, 2019). Increased clarity on the diversion impacts associated with C&D materials from landfills can encourage dialogue about material management that may inform future policy and program strategies resulting in economic, environmental, and community benefits for the state of Minnesota.

  With the support from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), this Capstone project has worked to provide an estimate of the total impact – economic, environmental, and community – associated with three material management methods used during building end-of-life: demolition, deconstruction, and renovation. Increasing awareness and transparency on the impacts associated with each method allows for data to be provided to both the private and public sector to enable actors to reduce the rate of salvageable C&D materials currently being landfilled and increase local and state governments capacity to adopt policies and programs that encourage C&D material recycling or reuse as a result of recognized economic, environmental, and social benefits.

  This report looks specifically at the Ben Pomeroy Student-Alumni Learning Center (Pomeroy Center) in order to quantify established metrics. The aim of this project was not to determine the end-of-life practice best suited for this building specifically but rather for the Pomeroy Center to serve as a model structure for the purpose of creating a framework for future economic, environmental, and social analyses performed on the building material management methods of Minnesota built environment projects.

  The results of this study found that deconstruction is the preferred method based on net economic, environmental, and community impacts. Though the data and models available at the time of this study were fragmentary, its findings can serve as an estimated baseline for buildings of comparable scale and scope to understand the economic, environmental, and community impacts of various material management strategies. The findings remain useful in determining how to approach and determine the best building end-of-life material management method for future projects in Minnesota’s built environment."

• Link: MPCA Capstone Final Report, 2022.pdf (2.74 MB)

Assessment of Materials Management Methods in Higher Education Building Lifecycle Decisions

• Description: "Our team identified a need for sustainability considerations within the decision-making process for the end of lifespan of higher education buildings. This is primarily because they are too often demolished in favor of aesthetics and external factors rather than practical internal ones (Liu et al., 2014). As a result, these demolitions cause significant and unnecessary negative effects on both climate change and the environment (Coelho & de Brito, 2012). We developed a categorical assessment tool and research framework to analyze and compare additional materials management methods for higher education buildings other than demolition, with the goal of empowering decision makers to reduce organizational impact. This assessment was created for addressing multiple considerations for embodied carbon, material sustainability/disposal factors, and project financing in balance with one another and can easily be replicated by decision makers for their use in making real life decisions. To illustrate the effectiveness of our model, we analyzed a hypothetical scenario of either renovating or demolishing and rebuilding Green Hall, an academic building owned by the University of Minnesota. Using our model, we were able to show an over 2.1x increase in project embodied carbon, 1.9x increase in capital costs, and a 1.7x increase in total landfill waste as a result of enacting demolition and new building construction over renovation. Our tool also considered the weighing of different impact categories in terms of importance towards reaching 100% project goal fulfillment. By adjusting our needs to prioritize climate (50%), and environment (35%) over project financing (15%) our tool rated renovation (3.85/5) at almost double the effectiveness of demolition and new building (1.86/5). Once completed, this tool allowed for the decision makers we presented to at the MPCA quarterly Built Environment meeting to clearly see the associated impacts of different project materials management methods on climate change, the environment, and a decision maker’s budget."
• Link: MPCA Capstone Final Report, 2023.pdf (1.68 MB)

What is the true cost of landfilling construction and demolition materials in one Minnesota landfill?

• Description: Construction and demolition (C&D) operations account for a significant amount of our waste streams, producing a staggering 1,534,127 tons in 2019 in Minnesota alone (MPCA, 2020). C&D waste comprises building materials and appliances originating from an industrial demolition site. Twice as much waste comes from C&D compared to household waste, and this number is only expected to grow, as an estimated one-third of existing buildings will be demolished by 2050 (MPCA, 2020). Currently, about 70% of C&D waste ends up in landfills (Hennepin County, 2024). It is hypothesized that landfilling C&D waste has additional environmental impacts from hazardous particulate matter emissions, eco-toxicity, and carbon emissions (Ecochain, 2024). Melissa Wenzel, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's sponsor for this project, asked her colleagues a simple question: could anyone define the true cost of a cubic yard of construction waste? To her surprise, no one could answer this question, which is where our work comes in.

This project aims to identify the true environmental, economic, and social costs of a Construction and Demolition landfill in USD, for the Becker County Landfill in particular, from construction to closing. The traditional method of actualizing the costs of a landfill is expressed as the fee charged to those who dispose of waste in a landfill, otherwise known as a tipping fee. A traditional tipping fee covers various expenses, including operations, maintenance, regulatory compliance, and post-closure care. Still, it fails to include social and environmental costs, leading to an incomplete representation of the costs associated with waste disposal. Our analysis goes beyond the traditional tipping fee associated with C&D waste disposal. To identify environmental costs, we considered the greenhouse gas emissions released by the landfill and translated this to a monetary value through the social cost of carbon framework. Social costs were assessed qualitatively by observing nearby community impacts, such as jobs generated by the landfill and decreased land value around the landfill. Becker County Landfill has implemented a waste-diversion Reuse Program. In this program, materials fit for continuous use are salvaged from the waste and stored in a showroom warehouse where contractors, artists, and individuals can purchase the reused goods. Revenue generated and the mass of the avoided landfilled materials from this program will be incorporated into the overall cost characterization. This data, showing the economic value of Becker County’s waste-diversion program, can be shared with other landfills to prompt their consideration of implementing a similar program.

• Link: MPCA Capstone Final Report 2024.pdf (2.55 MB)