Circularity and construction: a possible challenge in South Tyrol

The European construction industry contributes 38% of the CO2 emissions and 55% of the waste produced in the European Union. Decarbonising the construction sector is a necessary challenge to reach the 2050 climate neutrality targets of the European Green Deal. Circular economy offers new perspectives to rethink production, consumption and regeneration models for materials and resources in the construction sector, generating opportunities for innovation and enterprise with positive impacts on employment and sustainability.

So how can we accelerate the transition to a circular approach in the construction sector in South Tyrol? What opportunities and social benefits can a circular economy bring to South Tyrol?

The report ‘Circular Economy, Construction and Social Sustainability’ suggests seven recommendations addressed to the Province of Bozen/Bolzano and the companies in the region to make the construction sector in South Tyrol more circular.

The document is the result of the workshop ‘Circular Economy, Construction and Social Sustainability’ held on 2 October at the NOI Techpark in Bozen/Bolzano, which involved more than 40 representatives of local authorities, companies, social enterprises, cooperatives and research centres in South Tyrol. The meeting between different actors stimulated a multi-perspective discussion on the topic, offering an overview of the complexity inherent in the transformation of the construction sector according to circularity principles including re-use, recovery, recycling and reconditioning.

Various barriers emerged, including corporate and consumer culture, construction waste regulations, technical complexities, lack of economic advantage and lack of networking among stakeholders in the sector. On the one hand, end consumers prefer ‘new’ to recovered and recycled, while on the other hand, the corporate ‘mentality’, especially in this sector, tends to favour ‘business as usual’ rather than experimenting with new construction techniques involving the reuse or recovery of materials throughout the life cycle of buildings and infrastructures. Current regulations, in their complexity, place numerous limits on the reuse of recovered materials, favouring the use of new materials to guarantee the technical performance and durability of infrastructures. At the same time, there is no structured local network connecting the various actors in the sector to support and incentivise companies specialising in the disassembly, recovery and storage of second-hand materials. Finally, to date, for manufacturing companies, there is no clear advantage in proposing circular solutions at the expense of traditional ones.