Making sense of circular design A case study of a large scale contracting company

Abstract

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.