Dear colleagues,

Material consumption is greatly driven by the demand for construction materials. Due to the growing need for infrastructure and buildings across the globe, emissions associated with material production (currently ~23%) are expected to remain or increase in the future, further contributing to the climate emergency. Urgent measures are thus needed to reduce material consumption and/or associated carbon emissions.

This special issue aims to bring together authoritative commentary, step-change research, and evidence based recommendations to improve material efficiency and promote the circular economy in the construction sector in an environmentally beneficial manner. Given the complexity of stakeholders, geographical diversity, construction approaches, and building archetypes, we seek to invite research from all perspectives across the whole life cycles of buildings and infrastructure. We hope that this Special Issue can provide a consolidated set of rigorous research into low carbon construction, material and components substitutions, end-of-life circularity and designing with reuse. The scope of this issue covers all aspects related to material sourcing, production, construction, renovation and maintenance, demolition and/or adaptive reuse, end-of-life reuse, and demolition waste recycling. Submissions may include material, component, building and/or territorial assessments, and recommendations from any aspects of sustainability, circularity, industrial ecology, symbiosis and/or metabolism. Novel contributions from materials science, and technology policy within this scope are also welcome.

We look forward to working with you to make this Special Issue a high quality collection of Sustainable Built Environment research.

Dr. Mohit Arora
Prof. Dr. Rupert Myers
Prof. Dr. Felix Raspall
Dr. Arlindo Silva
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• net zero buildings
• sustainable construction
• embodid energy
• material substitution
• design with reuse
• circular economy
• climate mitigation
• technology policy