Sustainability 2018, 10(7), 2340; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072340
What Gets Measured, Gets Done: Development of a Circular Economy Measurement Scale for Building Industry
1
Polytechnic School of Linares, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
2
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, 85-796 Bydgoszcz, Poland
3
Faculty of Business and Management, University of Granada, 18010 Granada, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 1 June 2018 / Revised: 27 June 2018 / Accepted: 2 July 2018 / Published: 5 July 2018
(This article belongs to the Collection Sustainable Built Environment)
Abstract
The construction industry is among the sectors that need closer attention due to their environmental impact. The Circular Economy (CE) model promotes the transition to more sustainable production models, which are based on careful management of resources and the reduction of negative externalities generated by such businesses. Its application in this industry can foster significant improvements in sustainability. However, the measurement of the degree of implementation of CE is difficult, owing to an absence of psychometrically sound measures. In this paper, the development of the CE scale for the building industry was described, treated as an instrument that allows for a direct measurement of the importance of CE for companies. The processes used to generate items by applying the e-Delphi research technique were explained in the article, and the developed scale was tested and validated through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The final construction is composed of seven different weighted dimensions: four related to Resource Management: 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle), Efficient Management of Energy, Water, and Materials; two dimensions regarding environmental impact: Emissions and Wastes generated; and, one providing indicators of transition to the CE. View Full-Text
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Nuñez-Cacho, P.; Górecki, J.; Molina-Moreno, V.; Corpas-Iglesias, F.A. What Gets Measured, Gets Done: Development of a Circular Economy Measurement Scale for Building Industry. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2340.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Sustainability
EISSN 2071-1050
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert