Eco-construction for sustainable development: Concept of a Material and Component Bank

The European Commission has recently promulgated the concept of Circular Economy as a new pathway towards sustainability, in
particular through new policy initiatives such as the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). Since the environmental impact of the
construction industry with the depletion of natural resources and the raising CO2 emissions will have to be reduced in the future, the
need of recycling and even reusing entire building components supporting the principles of circular economy have been identified. The
direct reuse of components extracted from old deconstructed buildings presents an energy-efficient and environmental-friendly solution.
However, the reuse of components can be hindered by e.g. the lack of information on the availability of decommissioned structural
components and uncertainties on the warranty of structural components. To handle this process an additional independent institution
acting as Material and Component (M&C) Bank is needed. This entity assures activities such as e.g. the identification of reusable
components in buildings which are proposed for selective dismantling; the condition assessment; the data management and the data
transfer from a previously deconstructed building to a new building; and finally, an official certification of the components’ conformity
for another service life in a new application. In the current paper, a concept for such a M&C bank is presented. This study investigates
the potential of a M&C bank in the framework of circular economy concepts for the planning of sustainable and circular buildings with
a reduced eco-footprint by focusing on the reuse of decommissioned structural components. The concept, main businesses and work
operation of the bank are discussed. Furthermore, a digital representation of the bank as BIM-based M&C bank needed to publicize the
availability of the reusable components to the market and to enable circular business models by showing their circular pathways are
described.