Circular Economy Maturity in Construction Companies

Abstract

An idea of sustainable development is spread in many aspects of human activity. Recently, there has been a growing interest in it among entrepreneurs of various industries. Investigations of researchers in the field of ecology issues led to a formulation of the Ecodesign Maturity Model (EcoM2) supporting production companies in their pursuit of providing more sustainable products and services. The Circular Economy (CE), on the other hand, appears as a concept of reducing the ecological footprint by finding new concepts of the flow of matter in manufacturing processes, assuming its closed loop. In the literature, comparisons of production systems compatible with the idea of CE to ecosystems occurring in the natural environment, also known as closed ecological systems, can be found. CE in a building sector may be considered at different levels. At first, we can treat objects as ones that can be reused as a whole without any extra processing, for example: construction elements, pallets and multi-use wrapping of building materials. The second level includes reused parts of the construction that need to be remanufactured. The last stage requires a process of recycling, e.g. after a demolition of buildings, building materials are shredded and reprocessed into new elements. The EcoM2 model is used as a basis for an implementation of the Circular Economy in the construction industry. It is justified by its specificity because the construction of buildings is always associated with interference in the natural environment. The aim of the article is to indicate the role of construction enterprises in implementing the CE concept in the sector at the level of both processes and products, treated as an outcome of their activity. The article refers to the functioning of construction companies, including CE in their business strategy. The CE problem in a construction company should be recognised within the entire organizational structure. The concept of Circular Economy Maturity (CEM) of the enterprise is defined. The assumptions of the CEM model for construction enterprises is also described. The basic features that should characterise a company that is mature in terms of the application of the CE concept are specified. It is worth to note that the CE maturity is represented by enterprises that have a natural ability to reform and improve an ecological quality of their products and services. Moreover, these organizations are able to have unified processes and procedures that are identified, and knowledge about ecology is effectively communicated to employees. All organizations that have a CE maturity should plan all activities using processes that are designed and then improved by follow-up studies.