Making sense of circular design A case study of a large scale contracting company
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Increased demands from sustainability policies have forced construction companies to
scrutinize their ways of working and change from the current linear business models. The
construction industry is known for the impact regarding waste creation and is responsible
for being the largest waste stream in the EU, representing about one third of all waste
produced. The take-make-dispose approach used in the industry today is not sustainable
and introduction of circular economy concepts might transform the industry to better
practices. Circular design is one of those concepts, which is currently lacking prior
research and implementation in the construction sector. The report is carried out with a
large-scale contractor from Sweden, which is impacted by the introduction of the EU
taxonomy. The introduction of circular design in a new ISO standard and the EU
taxonomy has led to a need of gaining knowledge around the subject for the contractor,
and this paper aims at looking at the concept circular design from the contractor’s
perspective theoretically. The research aims to identify what the current knowledge of
circular design is and where the current knowledge is located, what is done already to
embed the concept in the organization and finally presenting actions to further promote
implementation. This has been done through analyzing prior research and interviewing
15 employees within the case company. The interviewees were segmented into four
different groups, with different areas of work to get a broad understanding within the
company. The results from the interviews were examined after transcribing and analyzed
to find similarities or differences to the literature.
Results show that a deeper knowledge of the concept of circular design is lacking in the
case company, and no clear strategy is currently implemented to embed the concept in
the way of constructing buildings. The current barriers preventing implementation and
opportunities are identified as a result of the interviews within the case company. The
major barriers identified were economic, tied to the client demands, technical and an
underdeveloped industry, while the opportunities were environmental impacts, usage of
buildings as material banks, and driving change in the sector. To conclude the thesis, the
identified actions that the case company is recommended to take to overcome the
identified barriers and take advantage of opportunities are fractionalizing the concept,
share knowledge, and identify economic advantages. These actions will make the
transition of a general understanding of the concept easier, whilst in the future also
making circular design implementation feasible.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Circular design; circular economy; construction sector; linear; waste reduction; taxonomy; design for disassembly; design for adaptability; Skanska