Although several models have been developed for handling construction materials, no standard mechanism has been formed to assess the circularity in construction material selection in terms of Circular Economy (CE). Thus, the purpose of this research is to explore the importance of CE for construction material selection and to develop a framework to assess the circularity of construction materials of building construction projects in terms of CE principles.
This research was conducted under quantitative phenomenon. A Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) based systematic literature review (SLR) was initially conducted to identify the CE principles applied in the construction industry. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the level of importance of each CE principle on construction material selection to develop a circularity assessment framework. Expert interviews were conducted to validate the proposed framework.
A total of 41 articles, systematically screened and selected through the SLR process, were used to explore the application of CE principles in the construction industry. A total of 10 CE principles were identified through SLR and the level of importance of each principle was first derived through Mean Weighted Average (MWA). Reuse was identified as the most important CE principle while reduce and recycle obtained second and third ranks. Then the MWA of each CE principle was converted to a percentage to develop the circularity assessment framework.
The research was limited to an objective evaluation of the importance of each CE principle for construction material selection of building construction projects.
The developed circularity assessment framework provides a new impetus for circular material selection in building construction projects for reducing the embodied impact of building materials on overall lifecycle impact of buildings.
