The CBC Open Call seeks to amplify proven solutions(“Blueprint Projects”) to accelerate the transition to a circular builtenvironment in Europe. While there are existing efforts to address challengesto adopting circularity at scale, many of the solutions have been developed andtested within closed or limited environments, but have not reached its fullmarket potential, or been widely diffused across the sector for the publicgood.

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The construction sector in the EU is a major contributor to carbon emissions and waste generation, with unsustainable practices pushing the sector past critical global warming limits. However, applying circular economy principles through a 'Circular Building Scenario' alongside industry decarbonisation has the potential to significantly reduce the sector's CO2e emissions by 4.15 Gt, keeping the 2°C global warming scenario within reach, and reducing material consumption by 6.7 Gt between 2024-2050.

The Building Circular Hotspots tool, serves as a shared platform highlighting inspiring examples of circular economy practices within the built environment. Explore our database to discover relevant cases spanning products, buildings, policies, and business models.

The built environment is responsible for producing 35% of all waste in the European Union, and its carbon budget is rapidly depleting. Accelerating the transition towards a circular economy in the built environment is a key way to reduce our impacts. This report examines the systemic challenges to accelerating the circular transition in the construction sector in Europe, and what can be done to overcome them.

^{Revision note: The previous available version of this report contained a mistake. Whereas the report estimates average annual impact 2024-2050 of the construction sector to be 277 Mton CO2e, a recent review suggests that this should have been 245 Mton CO2e. Furthermore, page 21 suggests that this is the impact of construction and renovation. This should have been construction only. The currently available version is revised from the June 2023 version. A more detailed breakdown of the impact for each year is presented in the report Four Circular Building Pathways towards 2024.}