Construction and built environment in circular economy: A comprehensive literature review

Abstract

Abstract Unlike Linear Economy (LE), Circular Economy (CE) considers resources in a continuously cyclical way within the environment. Yet literature lacks a review of Construction and Built Environment (CBE) as a whole under CE in which resources flow from a material form to complex products. By presenting the first integrated literature review of Construction and Built environment in Circular Economy (CBECE), this study aims to (i) demonstrate development trends and diversity within CBECE literature, (ii) investigate the state of the literature, gaps, and understudied fields and (iii) highlight key findings, critical reviews, proposals, and future research ideas. Based on a systematic literature review and a descriptive analysis the study found that: •CBECE literature remains at an early stage despite recent growth in academic interest. •90% of CBECE literature was published between 2017-2020 with subject diversity increasing over the years. •A substantial portion of the literature was conducted in China and published by the Journal of Cleaner Production. •Within 238 papers reviewed, “Waste” was the most frequently used term in CBECE literature. •To visualize publishing trends more comprehensively, the number of published papers by the end of 2020 is predicted to be over 120, as a novel approach for literature review studies submitted halfway through the year. Based on a unique three-tier framework with Scale, Stage, and Subject dimensions it is found that: •“Waste Valorization” and “CE Promotion and Transition” are the two most studied CBECE subjects while “Earth Construction” and “Decoupling” are the two least studied CBECE subjects. •“Material” and “Area” are the most and least studied built environment scales, respectively. •“Operation” and “Design” are the most and least studied construction stages, respectively. •“Waste Valorization” is the most studied CE subject in the “Material” scale at the “Construction” stage. •No study was found for the “Area” scale at the stages of “Design”, “Manufacturing” and “End of Life”. •Few studies were found for “Building” and “City” scales at the “Manufacturing” stage and “Area” level at the “Planning” stage. The literature synthesis showed that: •The construction industry has been struggling to embrace CE principles because of being a highly profit-driven industry with short-term goals and conflicting expectations by its key stakeholders. This may also affect the maturity of waste valorization due to long transportation distances and additional recycling processes and treatment as they increase the ultimate cost of reclaiming. •This review emphasizes that the literature needs to consider the diversity of stakeholder type, interest, and motivation and their influence on different lifecycle stages to achieve CE in CBE. •In order to maintain a circular built environment, studies show that material banks along with deconstructability of the components are vital pieces of CE ensuring the close loop of the resources. •Flexible buildings with adaptive reuse and modularity do not only bring social benefits such as affordable housing but also efficiency and health benefits when combined with circular design principles. •On a greater scale, industrial CE areas provide a valuable environment to evaluate CE transition and its consequences while cities call for a system dynamics approach to further understand urban transition under different policies and regulations. Among several proposals and future research ideas, this review proposes a Dynamic Circular Economy (DCE) approach due to the variety of built environment scales and construction stages. Finally, a new “R” principle (Replace) is proposed as a result of reviewing the literature under the existing 10 “R” principles of CE.