Industrial ecosystem renewal towards circularity to achieve the benefits of reuse - Learning from circular construction

We conducted a qualitative case study of two concrete-element reuse pilot projects. Renewal towards circularity requires changes in the construction industry ecosystem. Industrial renewal changes the roles, interactions, and perceptions of ecosystem actors. Changes within the industrial ecosystem benefit companies, industry, and society. Our findings show that industrial ecosystems’ renewal towards circularity requires changes in the ecosystem actors’ roles (role expansions and emergence of new roles), interactions (communication, collaboration mindset, utilization of tools), and perceptions (understanding the value of circulated resources, design thinking, and change resistance to conformity). We found that such changes towards circularity generate benefits at the micro level to companies (direct business, competence, and work satisfaction benefits), at the meso level to the industry (environmental, competition, and industry feasibility benefits) and at the macro level to society (environment and employment benefits).

Authors:
Linnea Harala, University of Tampere
Lauri Alkki, University of Tampere
Leena Aarikka-Stenroos, University of Tampere
Ahmad Al-Najjar, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Tove Malmqvist, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Published: Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 389. (2023)

Potential beneficiaries of the results: Companies, municipalities and central organizations and operators in the construction industry.

More information:
Linnea Harala
linnea.harala@tuni.fi
University of Tampere