EMPOWERING CIRCULARITY IN CONSTRUCTION: STAKEHOLDER-INFORMED SUSTAINABLE RENOVATION ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The construction industry is the largest consumer of natural resources and is responsible for producing 13 to 30 percent of global waste due to the linear economy “take, make, dispose” model. Today shifting towards circular economy is essential to decrease material consumption and waste generation. Building renovation is a part of building construction when the existing building is enhanced due to different reasons and receiving increasing attention in many countries. The following thesis presents the framework for assessing circularity in building renovation using the factors and indicators of circularity and their weights obtained from different categories of stakeholders (academy, public and construction industry sector) based on their perception. It covers the 6 different factors: “material type and flow”, “water and energy”, “construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management”, “cost and benefits”, “building functions and services”, and “renovation service provision”. The evaluations of factors and indicators were collected from stakeholders by survey. Results show that stakeholders rated the importance of factors and indicators differently by their categories. All stakeholder categories rated “cost and benefits” and “material type and flow” factor as the most important factors in assessing circularity during building renovation. Based on the responses of stakeholders the weights for each of the indicators were identified, analyzed using SHAP value analysis, and framework was created based on the ranking of the factors and indicators. The originality of the work is that the framework was created based on a stakeholder survey and is aimed specifically at the principles of circularity, since previous research was aimed at the principles of sustainability.