Frameworks, Tools, Methods, Indicators, and Considerations for Evaluating Circular Economy in Buildings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 1229

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Sustainable Resources Management, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, 1 Forestry Dr, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
Interests: sustainability in the built environment; low-carbon materials, buildings, and infrastructures; building energy simulation and modeling; resource recovery and circular economy; lifecycle assessment; urban stock and flow analysis
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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa, Macao
Interests: Life cycle assessment; Carbon neutrality; Sustainable development; Green buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The circular economy (CE) is considered a key enabler for enhancing sustainability and resource efficiency and mitigating climate change, which are priority concerns in the building sector. This sector emits over 38% of global greenhouse gas emissions, consumes 40% of global resources, and generates 40% of waste globally. It is expected that the global building area will be doubled by 2060. Therefore, this sector is key to optimizing the use of resources, minimizing waste, and mitigating emissions. Circular strategies can help achieve such objectives, as this eliminates waste and considers the existing commodity as a resource to be kept in the loop for the longest possible time. There are several major challenges in this broad area, such as the effective and implementable frameworks for adopting the CE principle; tools, methods, and a full set of indicators for evaluating the CE/circularity of buildings; considerations (e.g., dynamic material flow); and so on. Therefore, this Special Issue is interested in, among others, the following topics:

  • Principles and frameworks for adopting CE into buildings;
  • Material passport and CE;
  • Design for circularity: materials and buildings;
  • Bio-based design/materials and CE;
  • Sourcing sustainable and alternative materials, local materials, and waste materials;
  • Materials flow analysis and circularity;
  • Materials efficiency and circularity;
  • Tools, methods, and indicators for evaluating the CE of buildings;
  • LCA and CE of materials and buildings;
  • Circularity metrics, measurement, and approach;
  • Key considerations in measuring circularity;
  • Benchmarks, standards, and key performance indicators;
  • CE, logistics, and the Internet of Things (IoTs).

Dr. Md. Uzzal Hossain
Prof. Dr. Yahong Dong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • building materials
  • low carbon
  • sustainable
  • green buildings

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 3594 KiB  
Article
Development of Limestone Calcined Clay Cement-Based Lightweight Bricks Incorporating Waste Rockwool: A Step into Leading the Way in Low-Carbon Bricks
by Hussam Alghamdi, Hamada Shoukry, Hamdy A. Abdel-Gawwad, Md. Uzzal Hossain, Aref A. Abadel, Khaled A. Eltawil and Ahmed S. Youssef
Buildings 2024, 14(12), 3937; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14123937 - 10 Dec 2024
Viewed by 822
Abstract
This study aimed to develop eco-friendly limestone calcined clay cement (LC3)-based lightweight bricks by reusing waste rockwool (RW) with the improvement of technical performances such as thermo-physical and mechanical, including fire-resistance performances. LC3 binder was blended with expanded clay (EC) aggregates at a [...] Read more.
This study aimed to develop eco-friendly limestone calcined clay cement (LC3)-based lightweight bricks by reusing waste rockwool (RW) with the improvement of technical performances such as thermo-physical and mechanical, including fire-resistance performances. LC3 binder was blended with expanded clay (EC) aggregates at a ratio of binder-to-aggregate of 1:1.5 (vol%). EC was substituted by waste RW at different percentages, ranging from 5 to 15 vol%. Several technical properties such as density, compressive strength, total porosity, water absorption, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity were investigated after 7 days of curing. The fire-resistance performance of the developed bricks was determined by assessing the residual compressive strength after exposure to standard fire for up to an hour. With dry bulk densities ranging from 1200 to 1360 kg/m3 and compressive strengths (>8.60 MPa), the developed brick met the acceptance criteria for non-load-bearing applications. Even at the highest dosage of RW, the results demonstrated a thermal conductivity as low as 0.36 W/mK, indicating that the developed brick is suitable for hot weather zones, as it reduces the heat flow into buildings. The partial replacement of EC by RW is very beneficial in enhancing the fire-resistance performance, and a residual strength of about 89.7% has been maintained by the bricks incorporating 5% waste RW after 1 h of fire exposure (employing a maximum applied temperature of 927 °C). Lifecycle assessment results indicated that up to 13% lower carbon emissions are associated with LC3-based lightweight bricks designed to reuse a higher amount of waste RW. Full article
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