Optimal combination of low embodied carbon construction products, technical building systems and circularity principles for climate neutral buildings (Built4People Partnership)

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Measurable reduction in whole life carbon emissions^[1] and uptake of carbon removals in buildings;
• Increased integration of circular approaches for building construction and renovation works, with the aim of minimising lifecycle impacts;
• Availability of more accurate benchmarks and calculations of typical buildings’ whole life carbon emissions and carbon removals, based on Level(s) and consistent with the life-cycle global warming potential provisions under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

Buildings result in greenhouse gas emissions over their whole life cycle (operational and embodied emissions). Buildings can also contribute to long-term carbon removals by storing carbon in construction products. Construction and renovation works must also meet a variety of inter-related requirements such as structural and fire safety, acoustics, and a healthy and comfortable indoor environment. Although much research has focused on developing materials and products with reduced whole life carbon emissions, the life cycle impacts of buildings depend on a complex interaction between individual products, components and technical building systems, spatial distribution, usage during their lifetime, and other design choices. There is therefore a need to deliver buildings and renovation works with minimal life cycle impacts, in particular global warming potential, based on circularity principles, also accommodating future building use-change through design for flexibility, and using innovative combinations of products and systems that result in optimal building-level performance.

Proposals are expected to address all the following:

• Develop solutions that facilitate optimal combinations of construction products and systems with minimal life cycle environmental impacts at the level of the building. The optimal combinations of products and systems must also account for relevant aspects of performance such as structural integrity, thermal, acoustic and hygrometric, durability, potential for deconstruction and preparation for reuse at end of life, and potential for automated or industrialised installation. The solutions should cover, among others, the design and construction phases of work;
• Develop decision-related processes and strategies for adaptive reuse of existing structures, such as repurposing buildings as opposed to demolish and rebuild, considering the whole life carbon emissions;
• Validate the solutions, processes and strategies in a relevant environment in at least three countries, with different climatic conditions and building stock characteristics;
• Research the whole life carbon emissions of the developed solutions on typical building typologies in the chosen countries and contribute to whole life carbon benchmarking efforts;
• Consider the cost effectiveness of the developed solutions including relevant business models taking into consideration end-user needs;
• Contribute to the development of European standards^[2], where relevant;
• Contribute to the objectives of the Built4People partnership and to the Built4People network of innovation clusters^[3].

Selected proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) whose contribution could consist of providing added value on circular design and building solutions that reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, and enable carbon removals, as well as performing experimental research for validating those solutions on full-scale prototype buildings.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘People-centric sustainable built environment’ (Built4People). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘People-centric sustainable built environment’ (Built4People) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

[1] “Supporting the development of a roadmap for the reduction of whole life carbon of buildings”, European Union, 2023’. This publication commissioned by the European Commission includes the following definition: “Whole life carbon encompasses all greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the materials, construction and the use of a building over its entire life, including its demolition and disposal. It is thus the total amount of embodied and operational emissions.”

[2] ‘harmonised standard’ means a standard adopted by one of the European standardisation bodies listed in Annex I to Directive 98/34/EC, on the basis of a request issued by the Commission, in accordance with Article 6 of that Directive

[3] https://built4people.eu/nebula_project/