A material passport as a means to support the circular transition?

Abstract

The construction industry (CI) has to transition towards a circular economy (CE) before 2050 to achieve the ambition of our Dutch government. Within the CI there is an information gap leading to suboptimal recycling and reuse of materials and products. Capturing and sharing this information in a digital tool will be critical for the construction industry to make the transition to a CE. A material passport (MP) is seen as a collaboration tool that could close the information gap and promote the CE transition within the CI. There is little empirical data on MP implementation within science and practice, and the development of different MP initiatives is not harmonised. To standardise the development of MP’s so that data will be interchangeable and comparable, platform CB’23 has created guidelines for MP implementation and development. The objective of this research is to capture the lessons learned, and identify barriers and objectives for implementation within practice. With the goal of sharing these practical insights in order to assess the work agreements of the guidelines for practical applicability, achievability, and future development. This research has analysed a first-of-its-kind BIM-based MP implementation for a new building in the Netherlands.

Reflecting the findings of this research against the broadly accepted work agreements of the guideline, it can be concluded that implementation within practice is much more unruly and ad hoc than the suggested implementation guideline and road towards standardisation. Within this research, multiple discrepancies have been found that could create a barrier for effective implementation with respect to ease of use and could impact the added value of the tool over the lifetime of the construction. Private and public support of the work agreements is not aligned and could lead to the separation of MP development. Nevertheless, parties recognise the need for data registration in order to transition towards a circular economy. MP development should work towards creating the essential committed cooperation of all parties in the value chain, as within a circular economy the whole value chain should be involved. This could either mature through governmental involvement or market force, but balancing the economic and societal values of stakeholders within the value chain will become necessary to ensure the full potential of the tool to facilitate circular material flow within the construction industry. Future research should gather more empirical knowledge, and it is recommended that perspectives from both private and public clients be included.