Topics
We organise our actions in six thematic & strategic agendas:
Strategic Agendas:
Bio-economy
Circular Construction
Chemicals/Plastics
Manufacturing Industry
Food Chain
Water Cycles
Seven leverages provide additional support:
Leverage effects:
Lever Policy Instruments
Lever Circular Procurement
Lever Communication
Lever Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Lever Financing
Lever Jobs & Skills
Lever Research
What, why and how?
Why are we pursuing a circular economy?
Future visions 2050
How do we see our circular future?
About our management
Who steers what at Flanders Circular?
C-Bouwers PRO
Platform for circular building
Circular construction is on the rise. After all, the time is ripe for a step-by-step transition to closed material cycles. All those involved can contribute to this in their own way: from private builders and developers to contractors, architects and public commissioners.
Yet it is not always clear to everyone how they can make a concrete start with more circular construction. That is why Bond Beter Leefmilieu founded the C-Bouwers project: a platform that collects and distributes useful information on circular building to support clients, architects and other building professionals.
The platform bundles information and lessons learned from various initiatives to inform as many players in the construction chain as possible about the advantages and possibilities of circular building. Our focus is on an accessible online database of circular building products and services, organising or publicising information sessions and advisory courses on circular building and showing inspiring practical stories.
Bond Beter Leefmilieu
Partners VUB Architectural Engineering, BAS Bouwen, VIBE, Dialoog vzw
Sectors
Themes
Organisations
Website
MOST IMPORTANT
RESULTS
- The C-Builders product database makes information on circular products more accessible, making it easier to make informed product choices. The threshold for choosing circular alternatives is lowered.
- We have focused on the dissemination of innovative and circular building concepts through a series of webinars. In this way, we also hope to introduce innovations in circular construction to as many building professionals as possible who have not yet been made aware of them.
- We stimulate the circular building market by putting circular building products in the spotlight. Through articles on the platform, we inform interested parties about concrete and feasible solutions that can easily be adopted in practice.
- By drawing attention to the circular qualities of building products, we also encourage producers to develop their products in a circular way.
MOST IMPORTANT
LESSONS LEARNED
- A database makes circular building tangible and accessible to everyone. The proposed off-the-shelf circular solutions are often the first step for inexperienced professionals to integrate circularity into a project.
- There is a great demand for an unequivocal evaluation of circular products. A major barrier is the measurability of the predefined criteria. Currently, there are no standards, procedures, etc. to quantify and compare certain aspects of circular construction.
- Assessing and comparing the circularity of products or services as a whole is difficult and not useful. It would, however, be interesting to strive in time for standardisation or certification of various measurable partial aspects of circularity, such as dismantlability, compostability, etc.
- The platform is well received but its reach is still limited. A lot of information already exists, available on many platforms. Construction professionals find it difficult to see the added value of each platform. We need to think about the relationship with existing initiatives and the need for integration and scaling up.
WHAT DOES
THE FUTURE HOLD?
The platform is already building bridges to other projects, and we would like to expand this in the future.
We can further scale up the database by adding more products and articles, but our ambition is to grow by developing relationships with other initiatives and players, for example on circular specification texts, material and element passports, and model projects. The intention of the platform is not to provide all the information itself, but rather to refer interested parties and support them in finding the necessary information.
