Today, the European Commission released the much-awaited Circular Economy Communication outlining its long-term strategy aimed at providing Europe with a new competitive advantage. To this there is a need for a stable, coherent policy framework; funding and investment; support of best practices and innovation; sustainability assessment; burden removal; standards for secondary materials; information and statistics and training opportunities.

Looking specifically at the construction products sector, The Commission intends to encourage the recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) and to improve building design. With this the Commission aims at reducing the impacts and increase the durability and recyclability in the built environment.

Construction Products Europe supports the Commission’s general strategy and agrees with the selected key elements that underpin the development of a circular economy. We are looking forward to scrutinise the concrete legislative proposals enforcing the strategy to assess their effectiveness for the construction sector. Furthermore, we will continue helping to develop a reliable assessment scheme through a single harmonised life-cycle methodology.

The stepping stones towards a more resource efficient construction are:

• Sustainability assessment - Reliable single harmonised life cycle methodology
• Coherent policy
• Best practices
• Removal of burdens
• Incentives, funding and investment 
• Innovation - Industrial symbiosis and collaborative economy
• Secondary materials - Waste into resources; Standards for secondary raw materials; Stable, reliable and sufficient supply
• Information and statistics
• Training
• CDW recycling - Increase reuse and recycling; Identify, separate, collect and recover; Recycling protocols
• Building design
• Building performance - Environmental performance throughout the lifecycle
• Ecodesign - Application to construction products is addressed in a separate position paper