Circular Economy in the Danish Building Sector: The Importance of the Design Phase: A Stakeholders' Perspective on Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The building sector has been largely contributing to the current declining state of the world’s environment. It is one of the largest resource-consuming, waste generators and CO2 emitters worldwide, and therefore, a crucial sector to target when tackling the world’s environmental problems. Circular economy (CE) has been increasingly considered a solution for these numerous problems. However, there is no clear understanding of how its principles can be successfully applied in the building sector. Although at its core CE defends the ‘design-out’ waste principle, when applied to the building sector context, most academics and practitioners have been focusing on the end-of-pipe solutions. This project aims to provide a clear picture of how CE can be applied and implemented in the building sector, not just from a theoretical point of view, but more specifically, through the lenses of the stakeholders in the design phase of the Danish building sector. This study followed an abductive approach where, in the first moment, a theoretical framework based on the ‘Theory of Product Design and Business Model Strategies’ and the ’11 Rs Imperatives Theory’ enabled us to infer the assumption that applying slowing resource loop strategies in the design phase of a building project would be the most effective way to decrease the environmental impact of the sector. This project also aims to analyse, in the light of the ‘Adoption Factors Theory’, what were the most relevant internal and external factors to be considered by the different stakeholders when integrating these circular strategies into their business models. To test these assumptions in the specific case under study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with four Danish stakeholders involved in the decision-making phase, which were analysed through a thematic analysis approach. By combining the primary data collected with the theoretical framework developed, it became clear from the stakeholders’ perspective, that our theoretical assumptions could be confirmed: the slowing resource loop strategies applied to the design phase of the building sector are the best way to reduce the environmental impact of the Danish building sector. Furthermore, we could state that CE has potential to become an reality in the sector; however, how fast it will happen depends on how the different internal and external factors will play together to overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities associated with the circular practices.