Mankind is facing several major environmental challenges as a direct consequence of human activities. While climate change is recognised as the most pressing issue, resource depletion, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss are also threatening the future of humans and, as such, they pose important challenges. In response, regarding resource preservation, the concept of “circular economy” has been formulated as a paradigm shift aiming at dissociating human society development and resource use, to lower human impacts on environment, prevent resource depletion and anthropogenic pollution.

It is an active field of applied research, where an important role is played by the built environment, a sector generating serious environmental concerns. Whereas buildings researchers are well aware of the strong links between the environmental performances of buildings and their energy requirements (building energy use and embodied energy), buildings energy use and circularity are still too often disconnected.

Guest editors:

Dr. Charlotte Roux

École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), France

Email : charlotte.roux@enpc.fr

Dr. Antonino Marvuglia

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg

Email : antonino.marvuglia@list.lu

Dr. Thomas Gibon

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg

Email : thomas.gibon@list.lu

Special issue information:

This virtual special issue (VSI) aims to address this gap by spotlighting research that couple circular economy and energy use in buildings. Accepted articles will need to clearly demonstrate the link to both topics. Manuscripts that only cover reuse or recycling without any clear link to building energy use will not be considered. Similarly, research focusing only on building energy use would not fit the VSI’s scope.

As buildings have important interactions with other sectors (energy production, waste, waste-to-energy, etc.), the transition of the built environment from a linear to a circular economy will also need to address buildings at a meso- or macro-scale. Submissions of interdisciplinary work, including interactions with other sectors than buildings, and taking a life-cycle perspective to avoid impact shifting are therefore encouraged. Research addressing a larger scale than a single building project (district scale, building stock scale, industrial sectors, etc.) are of great interest for this VSI.

A (non-exhaustive) list of potential topics for interested authors is provided below:

• new proposals for evaluation of circular economy practices or circular economy scenarios, including building energy use and embodied energy;
• methodological development for life cycle assessment in the built environment;
• building stock transition toward circular practices, including energy efficient renovation strategies;
• circular economy for innovative building equipment;
• innovative energy efficient and circular building materials, envelopes or structures;
• indoor environmental quality and circular economy;
• integration building interactions with other sectors in building environmental performances;
• BIM-enhanced LCA of buildings.

Manuscript submission information

Manuscript Submission Open Date: 24-Jun-2022

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 01-Oct-2022

Further information could be found HERE.