Closing the loop: enabling the re-use of a building (or its elements) through regulatory measures

Problem

Europe has set a goal of becoming a climate neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this goal, it is targeting the most resource-intensive and polluting sectors. According to the European Commission, the construction industry in Europe is responsible for around 50% of fossil fuel consumption, more than 35% of waste generation and 5-12% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in each EU country.   

The European Green Deal 2020 and the Circular Economy Action Plan highlight the importance of the circular economy for the development of EU countries – in the construction sector, it is emerging as an important model for stimulating economic growth by reducing resource depletion. 

The relevance of the circular economy is also evident in Lithuania, where the Roadmap for Lithuania’s transition to a circular economy by 2035, adopted in 2023, identifies six areas, including circular construction, where circularity can be used to achieve economic growth. Looking at the changes in building regulations, Lithuania is setting ambitious targets, with the implementation on 1 November this year of a decree to use at least 50% wood or other organic building products in new public buildings. There is also a focus on the management of construction and demolition waste, with the aim of preserving the waste on the market as construction products, but without aiming to preserve or add value, i.e. to recycle construction and demolition waste on site and to use it for the construction of civil engineering structures (roads). Thus, although some regulatory measures have been taken, Lithuania’s transition to circular construction is fragmented, lacking uniform, nationally defined standards, tools and a focused strategy.   

In order to achieve a systematic change towards circularity, there is a need for a fundamental transformation of the approach to the building, i.e. to look at the whole life cycle of a building – extraction of raw materials, production of building products, transportation, construction process (stage A), maintenance of the building (stage B), dismantling, recycling of the waste (stage C), or return of the used elements back to the market (stage D). Life Cycle Assessment can help to make decisions that are environmentally friendly, sustainable and cost-effective.   

While the majority of CO2 emissions are emitted during the operational life of the building ( the EU has developed a separate Renovation Wave Strategy and Action Plan to manage the challenge), the study shows that the embodied energy in the production of building products and in the demolition of the building accounts for 21% of the total life-cycle emissions of a building. This is why even the EU’s classification system for economic activities (EU Taxonomy) favours activities that promote reuse, life cycle extension and waste reduction. Based on this situation, the construction sector should focus more on Stage D, i.e. maximising the adaptation of existing buildings to a new function, reusing building elements and designing for deconstruction. These principles help not only to reduce GHG emissions and waste, but also to limit the consumption of non-renewable resources. 

In Lithuania, the circular approach to the construction process and the building itself is still not applied – regulatory changes are not systematic or interrelated, so there are no regulatory measures to encourage the extension of the lifetime of a building or the reuse of its elements. While some private good examples can be found in Lithuania, the existing regulatory tools at national level do not encourage reuse by making it easier to demolish. Consequently, the increasing construction rate in Lithuania results in an increasing consumption of mineral materials and a growing amount of construction and demolition waste. 

The aim of the project is to introduce circular economy practices in the Lithuanian construction sector by developing recommendations on how to promote the re-use of buildings (or their elements) in Lithuania.  

Goal

he aim of the project is to introduce circular economy practices in the Lithuanian construction sector by developing recommendations on how to promote the re-use of buildings (or their elements) in Lithuania.  

Participants

2024/25

Eglė Kliučinskaitė