By Lenaïc Gravis, Editorial Development Manager, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Isobel Pinckston, Editor, Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
These approaches can transform built environments and lead to more economic benefits and better health outcomes. An Ellen MacArthur Foundation report explores the opportunities in Europe.
Encompassing places and spaces, the built environment is a complex system that interacts with natural ecosystems and influences other sectors such as mobility, energy and manufacturing. This interconnectedness means that changes in the built environment can have far-reaching impacts on society and the economy. Currently, Europe’s built environment is characterized by substantial material consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and significant impacts on biodiversity.
However, the potential for transformation is immense, especially as millions of new homes are expected to be built, and existing structures require energy-efficient renovations. A shift toward a nature-positive circular built environment could catalyze systemic changes. By designing more resilient urban landscapes and addressing the current wastefulness and resource intensity of the construction sector, Europe can align its built environment development plans with its climate and nature restoration goals while unlocking economic opportunities and contributing to citizens’ well-being.
The circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. is much more than a theoretical concept; it is an actionable solutions framework with substantial associated benefits. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s recent report “Building Prosperity: Unlocking the potential of a nature-positive, circular economy for Europe” demonstrates how a set of six circular economy strategies together can unlock a potential 575 billion euros ($630 billion) of annual revenue across the built environment value chain and realize several hundred billion dollars of wider economic benefits for business, municipalities and citizens by 2035. These benefits are ready to be realized now with low barriers to implementation.
6 strategies to transform Europe’s built environment
Redeveloping brownfield sites and converting vacant commercial buildings for residential development could unlock revenue for those involved in revitalizing these sites — from materials and component suppliers to new buildings and site managers. These circular economy solutions foster compact, multiuse urban centers with a wide range of associated benefits, helping the European Union deliver on its target to halt net loss of urban green spaces by 2030 and simultaneously addressing the need for housing.
The opportunity to avoid urban sprawl around small to medium cities in Europe is huge. For example, in Spain, some 2.5 million square meters of convertible vacant offices could create 28,000 new homes. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, about 665,000 square meters of vacant office spaces are viable for conversion into 11,500 residential units.
Maximizing nature through strategically increasing tree canopies and expanding green-blue spaces in cities presents cost-effective mitigation and adaptation solutions for climate-vulnerable regions. The study shows that these nature-positive circular economy strategies can reduce urban peak temperature by 1 to 3 degrees Celsius and flood intensity by 10-20 percent. Expanding nature in downtown areas creates attractive and vibrant city landscapes that also contribute to better socioeconomic outcomes for citizens, such as improved livability, health and productivity, increased revenue to city-center shops, bars, restaurants and cafés, and higher job potential. For example, this study shows that achieving an average green cover of 45 percent in European cities could result in up to 37 billion euros ($41 billion) in additional revenue for retail stores situated in tree-lined streets by 2035.
Employing material-efficient design and using low-impact materials — including reused or recycled materials, biobased and low-carbon alternatives — can reduce overall material consumption by 30 percent, as well as drive innovation and unlock new revenue pools. Front-runners in prefabricated and modular construction demonstrate that these design and construction practices can be adopted widely — for example in Sweden, 84 percent of new houses include prefabricated elements.
Material substitution offers promising results in terms of reducing carbon emissions. HAUT in Amsterdam, a 21-story building and one of the tallest hybrid timber buildings in the world, has cut carbon emissions by 50 percent compared with conventional buildings. However, it should be noted that substitution for biobased materials requires consideration of the potential impacts on nature (soil depletion), biodiversity (natural habitat conversion) and land use (competition with food production).
Now is the time to scale the nature-positive, circular economy
The built environment is a compelling example of how deploying nature-positive circular economy principles can promote economic opportunity, climate resilience and better outcomes for people’s health and well-being.
Beyond the built environment, comprehensively applying this solutions framework to other key systems, such as food, fashion and industrial sectors, has the potential to concurrently drive economic and nature-positive gains. With digital technologies and material innovation in place, and success stories showing the way, the time is right to make the circular economy vision a reality at scale.
This article was originally published in Trellis (formerly GreenBiz)
