The construction industry is a major contributor to global environmental challenges, responsible for over 30% of natural resource extraction, 25% of solid waste generation, and 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A significant portion of these emissions stems from embodied carbon in materials such as cement and steel, which account for over 80% of the sector’s total embodied emissions. Current recycling practices and material efficiency measures provide limited potential for improvement.
RECONSTRUCT aims to revolutionize the construction industry by embedding circularity and low-carbon solutions into its core practices. By leveraging advanced materials, modular designs, and digital tools, the project envisions minimizing resource consumption and waste generation while fostering sustainable economic growth.
Key Objectives:
1. Develop low-carbon alternatives to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) using Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) and industrial by-products.
2. Create modular, reusable construction components designed for disassembly and recycling.
3. Employ advanced digital tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), Digital Twins, and Material Passports to support circular design and lifecycle management.
4. Establish regional innovation ecosystems through Circular Construction Clusters in Brussels and Barcelona.
5. Construct two full-scale demonstrator buildings to test and showcase the feasibility of circular construction.
While significant strides have been made, several tasks remain under development. These include scaling low-carbon materials to industrial production, fully integrating digital tools and advancing construction phases of the demonstrator buildings.
