Building Circularity Conference 2025

Circular Construction Conference will take place on form 19th to 20th of February 2025 in Warsaw. 
The event is targeted to: developers, investors, architects, representatives of construction materials manufacturers, representatives of public administration, local governments and the media.

During the Congress, there will be lectures and discussion panels between international experts representing fields such as construction, architecture, urban infrastructure, waste management and plastics, and representatives of various industries operating in the construction sector, throughout the entire chain. This will be a field for discussion on the most promising solutions that will accelerate the implementation of the Fit for 55 package, and thus an effective transformation towards circular economy models, taking into account the environmental, geopolitical and social conditions occurring locally.

The conclusions drawn during discussions among many industry stakeholders will form the basis for ongoing changes to national waste management regulations.

Circular Construction Conference is part of the Circon4Climate project. The project aims to limit the application of the principle of application in public procurement, the effect of the enforcer in the retail trade to secondary materials and the results of scale and scope limitations, materials to be used and solutions, for example through regional material cadastres. Action on introducing changes in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, based on a good practitioner from Germany.

The organizers are Circon4Climate and INNOWO – Institute for Innovation and Responsible Development
Find more info about Circon4Climate at https://buildingcircularity.eu

CONFERENCE TOPIC:

The built environment already accounts for 35-45% of global material flows and 25% of global waste generation. This leads to diverse environmental impacts in terms of climate change (grey emissions) The share of grey emissions in global greenhouse gas emissions has risen from 15% in 1995 to 23% in 2015, with the construction sector being a major emitter.

Session 1. Circular Building Design: Strategies and Tools

To accelerate and make the transition to a circular economy more effective, it is crucial to have an overview of the various strategies, principles, and possible tools whose implementation can bring successful solutions to the construction industry.
The panel will focus on principles of circular building design through the lens of 9R, including design for disassembly, reversibility, adaptability, reconfiguration, and spatial transformability, as well as an overview of possible tools for circularity feedback.

Session 2. Circular Procurement in Construction

The procurement is by and large an underrated step in the construction process. This is a result of the current linear building projects using basically the same standards, materials and technologies. There is little concern in the procurement decisions as they are in fact dictated by the current status quo. It is time to break from the norm. This session’s aim is to showcase that thinking outside the box, increasing flexibility, developing engagement and putting greater effort in the procurement process can create benefits for the investors, users, society and the planet.
Session 3. Material Cadastres – mapping building material stock of cities and regions

In terms of the built environment, the key levels of action are cities. In order to make the built environment in cities circular, we need to know in detail existing building materials in the building stock and their dynamic. This is where material cadastres become relevant.

In our topic, we want to introduce the material cadaster approach as a tool to provide information on buildings material stocks and flows in cities and regions and to specify circularity potentials in building stock development and to move forward circularity oriented processes, focusing on pilot applications in CC4C regions and will share our experience in using material cadastres to support cities and regions to become more circular.

Session 4. Circular and low-carbon building materials

The panel discussion covers the significance of low-carbon building materials in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating global warming. It will also explore the importance of circularity, emphasizing how circular building products can reduce the need for primary materials and contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the panel addresses ways to improve legislation to better support the implementation of circular economy practices and promote the use of sustainable building practices and materials, identifies barriers to the efficient decomposition and reuse of materials, offering insights into potential solutions.

Session 5. Safe use of secondary building materials

The panel will be focus on building demolitions and the concept of pre-demolition audits and waste segregation into fractions and their further management. Current case studies on the reuse of construction and demolition waste (CDW), categorized by material groups, will definitely not be missed.

A discussion on the possibilities and limitations of secondary use of building materials is planned – recycled materials that can be used in manufacturing processes – and to increase the volume of the collection of materials for reuse and recycling.

Environmental requirements for products placed on the market and possible ways for reducing the carbon footprint of construction products through their reuse/recycling will be discussed.