Material flows in construction and infra

To monitor the progress of the circular construction economy, an understanding of what the baseline situation looks like is needed. In 2014, the report "Material flows, environmental impact and energy consumption Residential and Nonresidential Construction (B&U)" was published. Now EIB, in collaboration with Metabolic, has also mapped the baseline situation for civil engineering (GWW) on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat, partly on behalf of the Circular Construction Economy Transition Team. At the same time, an update for reference year 2019 has been made for B&U on behalf of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). This means that for the first time the situation for the entire construction sector can also be outlined. This first includes insights into the material flows associated with new construction, repair, and remodeling and demolition activities of homes, utility buildings and civil engineering assets. Based on the material flows, the environmental impact expressed in EQI was additionally depicted and the embedded CO2 emissions were examined. In addition to the reference year 2019, a projection was made for the reference years 2030 and 2050.

Questions central to this study: Does the demand for materials match the theoretical supply of materials? Does this picture differ by type of material? At what stage of construction (new construction, repair and refurbishment or demolition) and with which materials is the greatest environmental impact in EQI? How large are the embedded CO2 emissions associated with these construction activities? How do material use, total MKI and CO2 emissions evolve toward 2030 and 2050?

These and other questions are answered in the recently released study by EID and Metabolic "Material Flows in Construction and Infra."