Circular economy performance contracting: The contract that does not exist …yet

Abstract

In 2017, construction and demolition waste were again the heaviest waste stream in France with 227.5 million tonnes (42.2 million tonnes for the building sector). To achieve a 70% (by weight) recycling target by 2020 for non-hazardous CDW various policies have been launched by the French government. However, public procurement has been neglected. In the field of energy saving, energy performance contracting has been widely used to guaranty energy efficiency improvement after building refurbishments. The paper shows how this approach could be duplicated to building deconstruction projects. Circular Economy Performance Contracting (CEPC) would encourage creativity of the deconstruction contractors and the value-chain and maximise circularity. It would lead to significant environmental benefits (e.g. increase of reused products and materials, reduction of CO2 emissions).