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A total of 40 percent of energy consumption in the EU takes place within existing buildings thus retrofitting with energy efficiency measures could result in sizable impacts in the fight against climate change. The financial benefits of more efficient buildings are clear, but how can we attract further investment to these projects?

A sustainability consultancy company in London is pioneering in the implementation of "Materials Passports". These are digital data sets which describe characteristics of materials and components in products and systems, giving them “value for present use, recovery and future reuse".

The Scottish government is willing to incentivise a new tax that would encourage the use of recycled materials in construction, thereby boosting the circular economy. The construction industry could therefore meet its climate and sustainability targets.

Jón Hjaltalín Magnússon, coordinator ICETEC, has been interviewed by the Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðiðhas which has published an article "A new method of using aluminum for central heating" about the REVEAL project. 

Many residents complain of hot and cold areas in their homes. Alternatively, they might often mention that the rooms they hardly spend time in feel nice while the most frequently occupied areas are uncomfortable. Is it possible to solve this with a zoned HVAC system? 

The HybridWall prototype presentation was held at Denvelops® facilities in Igualada as part of the PLURAL project “Plug-and-use renovation with adaptable lightweight systems”.  The presentation was attended by our partners of Pich Architects, AHC, Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya and Catalonia Institute for Energy Research.

The PLURAL concept will be integrated at three different real demo building sites, located in Greece, Spain and the Czech Republic. 

In the perspective of the EU low-carbon transition, this study has assessed the environmental costs associated with meeting this demand by 2050, specifically focusing on three main strategic sectors: renewable energy, e-mobility, defence & aerospace. Researchers affirm that these costs will be outweighted by the benefits of the low-carbon transition.

When taking into consideration poor areas and society, we see that circularity principles are not easily implemented, nor easily understood by people. Indeed, as part of what the Houseful project is doing, there is the need to face the problem in a different perspective, such as, for example, focusing on how much energy would be saved if circularity was applied.

British construction are studying how to get the construction industry closer to circular principles by assessing the Dutch industry´s processes in terms of circularity. For example, the Dutch government has put in place financial support which benefits both the building owner, and the supply chain.