IEBUILDING

[UNDER DEVELOPMENT]

General Scope and Connection with Climate Mitigation

Introduction

The simple MS Excel model served as input to a discussion on how macro-economic representation of Circular Economy strategies relevant to building construction could be improved based on available Industrial Ecology data (such as material intensities per unit of floorspace) and tools (such as dynamic stock modelling).

The reason for focusing on buildings only, in this example model, is that buildings comprise an important part of in-use material stocks and their long lifetimes cause a typical lag between material demand (for construction) and waste-generation (after demolishing). This is an important dynamic when studying the potential for a Circular Economy (or a circular construction sector) that is typically missing in macro-economic modelling. This model explores which steps and what data would be required for economic models to better capture these explicit material-related stock dynamics, with buildings as an example.

The model provides a hypothetical example-setup - in an Input-Output Table data structure - that starts with the assumption that it is possible to dis-aggregate the economic data on the construction sector into building-related construction & other construction activities (mostly related to infrastructure). This should be possible based on NACE rev. 2 classification (building-related construction activities are tracked under code F41), and would allow to connect to a wealth of knowledge on building-related material demand in the research field of Industrial Ecology that often relate building material use to the physical floorspace (in square meters) of the buildings.

Model Scope

Though the model provides a hypothetical case study, the example setup has a global geographic coverage (with a distinction between 2 regions, being Europe and the 'Rest of the World'). The dynamic changes are tracked over a 10 year period. Drivers of growth are exogenous through hypothetical population change, leading to (simplified) changes in economic activity for 10 economic sectors. Implications on material demand are only elaborated for the construction activities related to buildings, and cover 3 materials being Steel, Concrete and Wood.

Model Development

• Status: Finished
• Environment: MS Excel
• Documentation: In-file & on this site
• Source code:

Circular Economy Features

This section provide the CE features of the model

CE strategies and connection with climate change mitigation.

- The model allows to assess the

Insights for Analytical Framework

This section should highlight the features relevant for the CIRCOMOD analytical framework. They should be linked with the previous section which provide more details.

• Key mechanisms and interactions within CE strategies that lead to changes in GHG emissions.
• Tool exploration (demonstrating ideas before implementing them in large-scale quantitative models)
• Communication key CE dynamics (to the broader audience)

Refinement, Integration, Future Development

The following sections are optional and should be completed only if they are relevant.

Refinement process

Please describe how the stylized model will be improved/refined in the CIRCOMOD project.

Integration

Highlight the features to be integrated in larger model in the CIRCOMOD project.

Future features of the model

Not yet implemented, planned model developments, if any.