Abstract:
The circular economy in the construction sector in emerging economies is one of the
most promising concepts that aims to keep the value of the construction materials and structures
as long as possible. The construction industry is rapidly developing in Kazakhstan with a yearly
increase in projects. This research paper investigates the construction sector in Kazakhstan in terms
of the potential application of circular economy principles by local stakeholders—clients, contractors,
designers, and manufacturers. As limited research has been conducted on the circularity within
the construction environment, including construction parties, this paper aims to fill this research
gap. It seeks to identify the construction trends and perform a barrier and opportunity analysis to
develop circular economy principles in the construction sector. As a research method, PEST is used
for the study of local construction trends. At the same time, stakeholders are interviewed using semistructured
surveys organized according to the ReSOLVE framework (regenerate, share, optimize,
loop, virtualize, and exchange) to identify the barriers and opportunities for circular economy in the
construction sector. As an outcome of this study, the most common barriers and opportunities were
associated with the economic benefit factor, as this was the main motivation for the stakeholders to
save construction materials for reuse or to refuse more eco-friendly technologies. Additionally, policy
recommendations for companies involved in the construction ecosystem were provided according to
the assessment of found barriers and opportunities in the context of the ReSOLVE framework. This
analysis has shown that for most stakeholders of the Kazakhstani construction sector, virtualization
is of the highest priority; therefore, opportunities for its development are recommended. Future
research could focus on the development of economically feasible solutions for the circular economy
in construction with the inclusion of virtualization technologies.