Every year the Circle Economy Foundation releases the Circular Gap Report presenting the circularity status in Europe and the world. Unfortunately, this year the situation is getting worse; we continue to raise material extraction and use, relying more and more on virgin materials compared with 2020 reporting an 8.6% circularity metric and 9.1% in 2018.
In 2023, materials that are cycled back into the global economy after the end of their useful life – secondary materials – account for 7.2% of all material inputs into the economy. At Reincarnate, we know our innovations’ crucial role in advancing circular economy practices, feeding a closed cycle of extended use, reuse, and recycling.
Circular solutions in the built environment
According to the report, adopting circular solutions across four key systems could fulfil our needs with just 70% of the materials we currently use. As a result, we will bring the planet’s vital signs back and within safe limits. The built environment is one of those systems that can implement circular solutions and become a game changer to reverse the overshoot. The extraction of the minerals necessary to produce its materials and the 40 % GHG emissions generated by the sector are destroying our habitats and, consequently, our biodiversity.
The Circular Gap Report states solutions to build more living spaces and transform the sector. One of them, “Make the most of what already exists”, resonates with our Circular Potential Assessment Information Management and Decision-Making platform (CP-IM) – whose first launch version is already active – complemented by ten specific innovations. Because there are tons of materials already at our disposal in existing buildings, through these innovations, we aim to give new opportunities to our buildings, construction products and materials and maximise their life cycle.
Regarding reuse waste, at Reincarnate, we have the mission to increase the utilisation of construction and demolition waste and the reuse of high-quality construction products. Ultimately, we want to make construction and demolition waste a thing of the past, determining if secondary materials are suitable for reuse and reducing the need for new materials and their environmental cost – 90% of total global biodiversity loss and water stress.
Empowering the sector with digital and social solutions
Based on the report, buildings already in use are major carbon emitters due to a lack of circular design and integrated planning, claiming nearly one-third of global energy consumption. For that reason, at Reincarnate, our first and foremost advancement to circularity is empowering users through our innovations: CP-IM, together with the ten specific innovations.
As the report states, that construction and demolition drive nearly one-third of total material consumption and generate an equal portion of waste. With our CP-IM, users will have a digital representation of building materials and products with information on their life cycle. As a result, they can assess these materials’ potential for life extension and reuse and predict circular value streams. In addition, our ten specific innovations will provide solutions for building inspection, construction, dismantling planning, and identification and classification of construction and demolition waste. Digital twin representations, artificial intelligence, and robotic automation will be the technologies of these innovations.
Yet bringing about this systemic change will require not only a profound, large-scale transformation of consumption and production patterns but an economy oriented towards new principles altogether.Therefore, at Reincarnate, we will encourage the widespread adoption of construction and demolition waste, impacting organisations but, more importantly, society by developing business process guidelines and an e-learning platform to drive the dissemination and exploitation of the results of our research and innovation project.
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