Potentiële stimulerende digitale technologieën voor circulaire installatietechniek

Nederland heeft het ambitieuze doel om een volledig circulaire economie te bereiken in 2050. Hoe gaat de gebouwde omgeving dit als meest grondstof intensieve en grote CO2 uitstoter realiseren? Wat betekent dit voor de installatietechniek? En wat is de rol van digitale technologieën in deze transitie? In dit artikel kijken we naar deze vragen door te laten zien hoe digitale innovaties zich verhouden ten aanzien van de vier basisprincipes van circulaire economie: regenereren, vernauwen, vertragen en sluiten. We lichten kort toe wat deze principes betekenen. Vervolgens laten we vanuit deze circulaire economie-principes zien hoe digitale technologieën, van blockchain tot kunstmatige intelligentie (AI), inzetbaar zijn in de installatietechniek.Housing Managemen

How Can Digital Technologies Support the Circular Transition of Social Housing Organizations? Empirical Evidence from Two Cases

The world is facing an alarming housing crisis. The challenge for the construction industry is to find sustainable ways to meet this growing housing demand. The concept of Circular Economy could be an alternative approach as it aims to regenerate, narrow, slow, and close resources loops. Digital technologies are seen as enablers to implementing these looping strategies through their capabilities for managing information and supporting collaboration and new business model creation. In the built environment, many digital innovations have emerged that support the circular transition of the industry at various spatial scales. However, these innovations mainly focus on nano, micro, and macro scales and lack perspectives on the meso level (real estate portfolio). This research aims to understand how digital technologies can support circular strategies at the meso level by collecting empirical evidence from the European social housing organizations actively experimenting with circular strategies. We conducted a multiple-case study method and chose two cases from the UK and Belgium. We collected data through desk research and online group interviews. Our results indicate that housing organizations adopt a wide range of circular strategies for managing their housing portfolio. The support of digital technologies to perform the circularity is low. Our findings suggest five potentially enabling digital technologies at the meso level supporting the housing sector towards circularity: circular asset management tools, digital building logbooks, material passports, BIM, and collaboration tools.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Real Estate ManagementDesign & Construction Managemen

Digitalization for a circular economy in the building industry: Multiple-case study of Dutch social housing organizations

Digital technologies are considered enablers of circular economy implementation in the built environment. Literature mainly focuses on conceptual or review studies examining the role of digital tools (e.g., material passport and building information modelling) to close the material loops. There is a lack of understanding of how digital technologies are implemented in real-life and whether they offer value to the industry actors. This study conducted a multiple-case study to collect empirical evidence from Dutch social housing organizations actively applying circular principles in new construction, renovation, maintenance, and demolition projects. Our findings suggest that artificial intelligence, digital twins, and scanning technologies support data collection, integration, and analysis for slowing the loops strategies (i.e., maintenance), while digital marketplaces facilitate material reuse, enabling narrowing and closing the loops. This study identified 12 challenges that hinder the broader adoption of digital technologies that are associated with the technological, cultural, market, and regulatory factors.Real Estate ManagementDesign & Construction Managemen

Towards Circular Social Housing: An Exploration of Practices, Barriers, and Enablers

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) and its application in the built environment is an emerging research field. Scholars approach CE from various perspectives covering a wide range of topics from material innovation to city-scale application. However, there is little research on CE implementation in housing stock, particularly that which is managed or owned by the social housing organisations (SHOs) and which offers opportunities to generate circular flows of materials at the portfolio level. This research focuses on Dutch SHOs and uses the Delphi method to examine CE practices in their asset management, as well as the main barriers to and potential enablers of its uptake. The analysis of two iterative rounds of expert questioning indicates that Dutch SHOs are in the early experimental phase in CE implementation. From the results, it is evident that organisational, cultural, and financial barriers are the most pressing ones that hinder the wider adoption of CE in their asset management. Building on the panel input, this study suggests potential enablers to overcome these barriers, such as CE legislation, best practice case studies, commitment and support from the top management, and the creation of a clear business case.Housing ManagementManagement in the Built EnvironmentPublic Commissionin

Data requirements and availabilities for material passports: A digitally enabled framework for improving the circularity of existing buildings

Passports for circularity, e.g., digital product passports and material passports (MPs), have gained recognition as essential policy instruments for the Circular Economy goals of the European Union. Despite the growing number of approaches, there is a lack of knowledge about the data requirements and availabilities to create MPs for existing buildings. By deploying a mixed-method research design, this study identified the potential users and their data needs within the context of European social housing organisations. Three rounds of validation interviews with a total of 38 participants were conducted to create a data template for an MP covering maintenance, renovation, and demolition stages. This data template was then tested in a case study from the Netherlands to determine critical data gaps in creating MPs, including, but not limited to the composition of materials, presence of toxic or hazardous contents, condition assessment, and reuse and recycling potential of a product. Finally, an MP framework is proposed to address these data gaps by utilising the capabilities of enabling digital technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence and scanning systems) and supportive knowledge of human actors. This framework supports further research and innovation in data provision in creating MPs to narrow, slow, close, and regenerate the loops.Real Estate ManagementDesign & Construction Managemen

A Conceptual Framework for a Digital Circular Built Environment: The Data Pipeline, Passport Generator and Passport Pool

This article proposes a conceptual model to address the structural holes in data sharing between (and beyond) actors in the circular built environment supply chain and monitoring circular economy progress. Current digital innovations such as material passports and Building Information Modelling applications aim at increasing quality and availability of information about materials and their application in buildings to facilitate future reuse or recycling, based on the idea of buildings-as-material-banks. Although these approaches offer great potential to recover value from building materials, they mainly focus on a single building and have a limited capacity to exchange data with other supply chain actors in a timely manner. In this article, we argue that there is a need for an integrated digital infrastructure that expands beyond the industries and countries for enabling a connected global circular economy. Therefore, this article proposes an initial conceptualization of a digital infrastructure towards achieving a circular built environment. The proposed model puts forward three interoperable components: The Data Pipeline, Passport Generator, and Passport Pool, based on emerging technologies such as blockchain technology, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Real Estate ManagementInformation and Communication Technolog

From circular strategies to actions: 65 European circular building cases and their decarbonisation potential

The application of the circular economy (CE) in the building industry is critical for achieving the carbon reduction goals defined in the Paris Agreement and is increasingly promoted through European policies. In recent years, CE strategies have been applied and tested in numerous building projects in practice. However, insights into their application and decarbonisation potential are limited. This study analysed and visualised 65 novel real-world cases of new build, renovation, and demolition projects in Europe compiled from academic and grey literature. Cases were analysed regarding the circular solution applied, level of application in buildings, and decarbonisation potential reported, making this study one of the first comprehensive studies on the application and decarbonisation potential of circular strategies in the building industry in practice. The identified challenges of using LCA for CE assessment in buildings are discussed and methodological approaches for future research are suggested.Real Estate Managemen